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SPEECHES 



ON THE 



JEW BILL., 



IN THE 

HOUSE or DELEGATES OF MARYLAND, 

BY H. M.^THIACKENRIDGE, COL. W. G. D. \yORTHlNGTON, 

AND JOHN S. TYSON, EsauiRK. 

I 

TOGETHER WITH 

AN ARGUMENT ON THE CHANCERY POWERS, 

AND 

AN EULOGY 

ON 

THOMAS JEFFERSON AND JOHN ADAMS, &o. 

BY H. J\I. BRACKEJSRIDGRc^^'^^ "^ ^^"^/-^ 

•^ Of Vj^ < v^'i-tO 

PHILADELPHIA: 

J. nOBSON, (AGENT,) No. 108, CIIESXI'T STREET, 

JrSl'ER IliRPlNd. TKINTER. 

1829 



/ 



£"3 37 



ADVERTISEMENT. 



This publication was at first intended merely to 
preserve in a less fugitive form, the speeches on 
the Jew Bill, in Maryland, together with the ar- 
gument on the Chancery Powers ; but the editor, 
having been furnished with the Eulogy on Thomas 
Jefferson and John Adams, which has been high- 
ly complimented by Mr. Wirt, together with some 
other articles, by the author, concluded to embrace 
the whole in the volume, now offered to the public. 
The struggle in Maryland for the freedom of con- 
science, is one which at the time excited a deep 
interest; and every victory of correct princi- 
PLES---every triumph of freedom, should be care- 
fully recorded in pcrpetuum rei memoriam. 



AN ARGUMENT 

DELIVERED BY 

H. M. BRACKENRIDGE, 

BEFORE THE CHANCELLOR OF MARYLAND, 1816, 

IN THE 

CASE OF M'KEAN vs. BRUFF. 



I AM about to address the court on a question 
of some novelty, and, I think, of some importance. 
It is one which must be solved by a recurrence to 
first principles, if solved at all. It is one, which 
calls for no little research, and, at the same time^ 
opens a wide range of analogous illustration Trui^ 
ing to the indulgence of the chancellor, and, u/Jth 
all deference to his superior wisdom, I will ' cnture 
into a field which ought properly to be reserved for 
abilities infinitely greater than mine. 

To the complainants, the refusal of the chancellor 
to interpose in their behalf, will be attended with 
the most serious consequences. They have no hope 
of obtaining a restitution of their property, which 
has been seized in Virginia, until the final decision 
1 



ON THE CHANCEllY POWERS. 



of a suit now at issue in that state ; and this must 
depend upon their being able to procure the testi- 
mony of the respondent. For the purpose of pro- 
curing it^ a commission, (as is stated in the bill,} 
has been sent from the court in Virginia to this state. 
But the respondent to the present bill, conceiving 
himself under no obligation to testify, because the 
Virginia court has no power to enforce its commis- 
sion here, has utterly refused. 

Unless, therefore, there be some mode of com- 
pelling him to give testimony, the plaintiffs to the 
suit in Virginia must, eventually, lose their pro- 
perty ; for, in the breast of the respondent, alone, 
is deposited the knowledge of the facts essential to 
the prosecution of their claim. 

The chancellor of Virginia, informed of the nature 
of this refusal, has suspended the suit in that state, 
indefinitely, in order that time may be allowed us, 
to procure this testimony. In the meanwhile, 
however, the property of the plaintiffs, which is of 
considerable value, is detained from them, and, 
eventually, they may lose it altogether. 

To our clients, then, the question before the 
chancellor is of much importance. It will, how- 
ever, be easily seen, that this importance, great as 
it may be, dwindles into comparative insignificance, 
when considered in relation to the general effects 
of this decision. This is one of those cases of which 
it may be justly said, that the private grievance 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 



is merged iu tlie public inconvenience. There is 
nothing of more frequent occurrence, than the send- 
ing of commissions from one state to another, fo?: the 
purpose of taking the depositions of witnesses ; and, 
hitherto, no difficulty from a refusal to give evi- 
dence, has been experienced. But, may not this, 
in a great measure, be attributed to the general 
belief, that it is the duty, as well moral, as legal, of 
the witness, to testify? And, is there not reason 
to fear, that, when it comes to be generally under- 
stood that this rests entirely on the whim, caprice, 
favour, or, perhaps, corruption of the witness, there 
will be frequent instances of refusals like the pre- 
sent? At all events, is it expedient, is it just, that 
a matter of so much importance to the safety and 
well-being of society, as the testimony of witnesses, 
should be left altogether to their private will and 
pleasure, where it is indispensable to the attain- 
ment of justice, in cases depending in court? In 
no well regulated government, is it ever left to the 
mere option of the witness to give, or to withhold his 
testimony, where it is essential to the ascertain- 
ment of public, or private right. 

The different states which compose this confede- 
racy, as respects the intercourse of business, and 
all the transactions of life, constitute but one great 
nation. In matters of business, we are not more 
influenced by state divisions, than by those of coun- 
ties and parishes. The national compact (for thus 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 



we may denominate our federal constitution) has 
carefully provided against this inconvenience. It 
is to the advantage of all^ that there should be some 
mode of procuring the testimony of witnesses re- 
siding beyond their respective limits, and yet with- 
in the territory of the nation. In this point of 
view, I am confident, the present question cannot 
be regarded as unimportant. Our political institu- 
tions are yet young and in a course of experiment ; 
this may be the first time the question has been 
presented to a court. In one thing, I believe, no 
one will dissent from me ; if there be no law to 

SECURE us THAT WHICH WE NOW SEEK, THERE OUGHT 
TO BE A LAW. 

It will therefore be a preliminary inquiry, whe- 
ther this be such casus omissus, in legislation, as 
requires the enactment of a law, or whether it be 
a subject proper for the extraordinary interposition 
of this court. I contend, that if we have a legal 
right to the testimony of the witness, it is compe- 
tent for this court to provide a remedy, unless re- 
strained by some positive principle of law, from 
which it would be improper to deviate. If, on the 
contrary, this be not an original and perfect right, 
but one which can alone derive its existence and 
creation from some particular statute, it is, then, 
casus omissus, for which a remedy may be provid- 
ed in future, but, in the meanwhile, the present 
complainants, and, perhaps, many others in a simi- 



ON TUF. CHANCERY POWERS. 



lar situation, must unavoidably suffer. It will be 
my duty to show, that we claim a right which never 
required a legislative act to call into existence ; 
that, wherever legislatures have enacted laws, or 
courts have interfered, it has been to acknowledge, 
to sanction, to enforce ; and, although they have, 
in some instances, limited the exercise of it, as in 
the case of all other natural rights, or i^rescribed 
the conditions upon which it will be enforced, they 
have always taken for granted its original existence. 
In ethics, or morals, those truths which are so 
obvious as to be almost self-evident, are as difficult 
to prove, as an axiom in mathematics. I feel at a 
loss how to demonstrate, that which no one can ra- 
tionally deny. And, yet, I sincerely believe, that 
it will be seen, that the chief difficulty lies in this 
part of my argument: for if it be admitted, that we 
have a perfect right, it appears to me, that every 
thing for which I contend, must be admitted as the 
necessary consequence. Where is the civilized 
people, and I might ask, where is the barbarous 
tribe, that has not found it necessary to compel 
witnesses to give evidence, when their testimony 
was necessary to the administration of justice? 
Amongst the Greeks, a witness who refused to give 
evidence was liable to a penalty of a thousand 
drachmas ; amongst other nations, whom I do not 
mention as examples for imitation, the bastinado, 
the knout, or the wheel, are the usual modes of 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 



subduing the stubbornness of witnesses. As in every 
society disputes will take place, and, as it is impos- 
sible, in such instances, to decide between the par- 
ties at variance, without having recourse to the in- 
formation or knowledge of others, respecting the 
subject of difference, such information becomes as 
important as the authority of the magistrate who is 
to decide, or the laws by which his decision is to be 
governed. The resort to the testimony of witnesses 
must have been coeval with government, with laws, 
and with judicial power — nay, with society itself. 
It is one of those things which may be said to be 
interwoven with its very texture ; and essential, 
not merely to its well-being, but to its very exis- 
tence. To ^<^bear witness,'' in judicial causes, is 
one of those duties which we reciprocally owe to 
one another, and arises from the very nature and 
structure of society ; a duty as perfect as that which 
every citizen owes to the whole, (in other words, to 
the state,) for its defence and preservation, as the 
necessary and inseparable attendant on every social 
compact. No positive statute, or express law, is 
necessary to give birth to such a duty, for it was 
called into life long before the formal enactment of 
statutes or express laws. It is, in fact, an appen- 
dage to the right to life, to liberty and property, 
for the protection of which, society and laws have 
been instituted. 

It will not be denied that there are certain na- 



ON THE CHANCEXIY POWERS, 



iitral 7'ights, which, on entering into society, are 
supposed to be surrendered altogether, modified, or 
completely retained. So far as they have not been 
taken away, or modified, we still possess them in as 
ample a manner as we could in a state of nature. 
They originate in nature, although possessed and 
enjoyed in society. For their security, others have 
been surrendered ; but when we claim from the go- 
vernment the security it has stipulated to afford, 
for those which have been retained, we call upon it 
to secure what was originally ours, not to warrant 
what we have derived from it. Such, for instance, 
is the right to pursue the course of life we may 
think most conducive to our happiness, provided 
we do not injure others, or contravene the laws. If 
in the pursuit of this natural, and inherent right, we 
should be interrupted, or molested, we are not re- 
quired in seeking a remedy, to produce the laws or 
statute, by which the right has been created ; it suf- 
fices that it was ours on entering society, and that 
it has not been taken away : it is enough that it is 
inherent in the very nature of man, and that laws and 
governments may act upon, but can no more create, 
than it can create the beings which compose the 
society itself. Now, as it would be no better than 
a ^^ solemn mockery," to acknowledge that we have 
rights, and, at the same time, deny us the means 
of protecting them, there are other rights inciden- 
tal to the first, alike antecedent to express law, and 



ON THE CHANOKUY POWKKb. 



as independent and original in their nature, as those 
which we receive from the Creator. Such is the 
right to the security of our persons, property, and 
characters, and the right to appeal to the courts of 
justice when any of these have been violated. 1 
Black. 124. This arises from that tacit social com- 
pact, admitted to exist, even in monarchies, where 
all power is referred to the monarch as its fountain. 
The necessary consequence of the right to demand 
redress for injuries, is the right of compelling wit- 
nesses to give testimony^ otherwise, the first might 
be altogether nugatory. For the protection of 
. rights like these, constitutions may provide, legis- 
latures may enact, courts may institute rules to faci- 
litate their vindication, but neither legislatures nor 
judges canmaAe them. They can but act on what 
is already in existence. The distinction between 
natural and social rights, although taken by Black- 
stone in his commentaries, is of no practical impor- 
tance, as the phrase natural rights includes both. 
It is true, there are many rights, both social and 
natural, which impose only imperfect obligations, 
and some of them of such a nature, as not even to 
appeal to the conscience ; the first are contained in 
the precepts of morality, such as charity, benevo- 
lence, piety, &c.; the others may be included under 
the general term of decorum, bien seanse ; for both, 
it would be utterly impossible for human laws to 
provide, on account of their infinitely various and 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 



indefinite nature, and are, therefore, left to the 
coercion of conscience and opinion. But this sanc- 
tion in cases of perfect right would be entirely in- 
adequate, without others of a more certain and per- 
fect character; the well-being of society, the fitness 
of things, requires that they should be defended 
and protected, in a more careful manner. Such are, 
in general, the cases in which, to use the words of 
Justinian, vinculum juris quo necessitate adstrin- 
gimur alicujis ret solvendse ; such are, for the most 
part, those cases, which are said to be at common 
law, and owe their commencement or being to no 
custom, to no statute, or statute supposed to be lost, 
to no express law or precedent, but spring from the 
relations of society; and it is immaterial whether 
recognised time immemorial, or brought into notice 
at a later period, by the accidents of place, of busi- 
ness, of habits, or of employments. Among all the 
individuals that compose the society, there is a 
tacit agreement to respect them, and it is this which 
the law will enforce. A mutual obligation arises, 
not to withhold or interrupt their enjoyment, and, 
on certain occasions, to assist in their defence. 
From what other source do we draw the maxim, sic 
utere tuo ut alienum non Ixdas, and whence we 
derive the law of private nuisance ? Upon what 
other ground does a man claim damages of his neigh- 
bour, who obstructs his ancient rights? Or, who 
burns his neighbour's house, by negligently keep- 
2 



10 ON THE CHANCEKY I'OWERS. 

ing the fire in his own, or who drowns liis neigh- 
bour's lands, by damming up the stream common to 
both — or who is the cause of injury to his fellow- 
citizens by keeping mischievious animals? From 
what other source, do we derive the remedies which 
relate to the rights of property, reputation, or li- 
berty, arising under the head in the civil law, de 
injuria ? These are causes of complaint, founded 
on the disregard of what tends to the safety, hap- 
piness, and well-being of society. No well regu- 
lated community can overlook them. There are 
many of the same nature, which cannot be foreseen, 
but when they occur, are instantly recognised as 
belonging to the same class of rights. Such is the 
right, which the law gives a man, to pass over his 
neighbour's adjoining land, when the highway, by 
some accident, has been obstructed. 

There is, however, a criterion by which a law- 
yer may easily distinguish the cases of perfect obli- 
gation, from the imperfect. It is, by observing 
whether they have been uniformly sanctioned by 
law ; in many cases, I will admit, the distinction 
between what is legal, or only conscientious, is dif- 
ficult to be made ; but we cannot mistake, if we find 
that this sanction has been actually applied. Coop- 
er's Inst. 560. Let us bring the obligation to tes- 
tify in a cause depending, to this test, in order to 
ascertain the class to which it belongs. 

We claim the right to the testimony of the re- 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 1 I 

spondent, in virtue of no positive law or statute, but 
as a natural or social right ; has this right been in 
any shape acknowledged by courts or legislatures? 
It is a sufficient answer/thatfroni the earliest periods 
in the history of English jurisprudence, witnesses 
in civil eases, have been compelled to give evidence. 
But, it is expressly declared by lord Mansfield, 
that an action for damages, can be maintained at 
common law, against a witness who refuses to give 
testimony, before and since, the statute of Elizabeth, 
imposing a penalty, and giving damages, which is 
nothing more than an additional security. Doug. 
556. In another case, an action for damages, on the 
statute, was maintained against a witness, who re- 
fused to bring papers into court on a subpoena duces 
tecum, although not within the words of the statute, 
and, besides, objected to, as a mode of proceeding 
but recently introduced. 9 East. 473. This case 
was declared by lord Ellenborough, to have been 
one of the most important ever tried in Westmin- 
ster Hall. Indeed, it would be strange, if cases 
which may involve the most important subjects that 
can relate to us in this life, were otherwise consi- 
dered. 

From the cases just cited, it is evident, that the 
power of compelling witnesses to testify, is not a 
mere incident of judicial authority ; that it is not a 
matter which rests altogether between the judge and 
the witness, and not between the witness and the 



12 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

party. Otherwise, how could the party become en- 
titled to damages at common law, if the witness be 
only guilty of a contempt of court? The right to 
claim damages, supposes a right to claim the per- 
formance of a duty or obligation. I contend, that 
the plaintiff has a clear, distinct, and perfect right 
to the knowledge of certain facts, in the defendant's 
possession, and that the defendant is under a corre- 
sponding obligation to disclose them. Living under 
the same laws, in the same society, being entitled 
to the same right from some one of his fellow-citi- 
zens, and having the consciousness that this means 
of protecting his rights is always at his command, 
can it be doubted that he has tacitly incurred an obli- 
gation, which the laws will compel him to perform? 
That knowledge, in the breast of the witness, is as 
much the property of the party, when, on a proper 
occasion, it is required, as a purse of gold placed 
with him for safe keeping ! When legally called 
upon, it is a duty which the witness is as much 
bound to perform, as any office of life he may have 
expressly and positively taken upon him ; and it is, 
for this reason, that he is responsible for the conse- 
quences of his neglect. Such has been the recog- 
nition of courts of law ; let us now see how it has 
been received in the court of chancery. 

The court has also been in the practice of com- 
pelling witnesses to testify, long before the enact- 
ment of statutes on the subject. But. proceeding 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 13 

on the principles of natural justice, it went miicli 
further than the courts of law. These, in conse- 
quence of the obstinacy with which they refused, 
at an early period, to extend their remedies, failed 
in securing this important right to testimony, as well 
as many others, in some essential particulars ; ap- 
plication was therefore made to the king in person, 
or to his delegate, the chancellor. There existed 
no way of compelling a party to give evidence 
against himself: there was none for perpetuating 
the testimony of witnesses, or for taking the depo- 
sitions of such as were infirm, or about to absent 
themselves : and, upon what ground did the chan- 
cellor interpose in these cases? Surely, upon no 
other, than the broad ground of natural justice. 
The party had an equitable right to the facts in the 
possession of the witness, essential to the determin- 
ing of his cause. A right as complete, in itself, as 
the right of trial, or to the subject of the dispute 
when awarded him. What other reason than this, 
could have been suggested to the chancellor as the 
ground of his interposition ? Is it then necessary 
to use further argument, to prove the truth of the 
simple proposition which I have undertaken to esta- 
blish ; that a party has a distinct and perfect right 
to the testimony of his fellow-citizen, when legally 
required, unless it is ivithheld 07i the ground of 
some sufficient legal excuse? 

It may be said, that the testimony being sought. 



14 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

for the purpose of being given in evidence, in a 
cause depending in the court of another state, the 
court here, will only consider it as a voluntary affi- 
davit. There ought, most certainly, to be a proper 
restraint, or restriction, in the use of this right, as 
of every other ; or, more properly, it can only be 
considered perfect, when it is sought, for the pur- 
pose of being used in a cause depending in some 
court, for it is only thus far, that it has received a 
clear and undoubted sanction. But, I contend, that it 
is not material where that cause may be depending, 
in what court of legal organization, or in what coun- 
try. This can in no case alter the right and obli- 
gation. There is no necessity of entering into an 
elaborate argument on this head, for I will produce 
a case exactly in point. A bill of discovery has been 
entertained by the court of chancery in England, in 
aid of a court in Spain. Coop, chanc. 150. If the 
decision in this case, proceeded on principles of 
comity, there is certainly an equal reason for a simi- 
lar comity between these sister states : if on the prin- 
ciples of natural justice, which is more probable, it 
goes to confirm my argument in every particular. 

I am aware, it may be objected, that I am prov- 
ing too much 5 that I am proving my client not to 
be entirely remediless elsewhere ; that he may 
maintain his action for damages at common law, or 
perhaps under the act of assembly. To this objec- 
tion I have an easy reply. To withhold from us 



ON THE CHANCERY I'OWERb. 15 

the aid of this court, the remedy by action for da- 
mages at common law, must appear certain and de- 
finite, not uncertain and conjectural ; and, moreover, 
that it must be commensurate to the nature of the 
case ; it is not certain, for this would be the first 
suit brought to recover damages of a witness, for re- 
fusing to give evidence in a cause depending in a 
foreign court. This case would be regarded as 
primde impressionis, and, therefore, the presump- 
tion would be against it : for where the right is clear, 
but the remedy has never been applied, the reme- 
dy is presumed to have been taken away, or never 
to have existed. But, in chancery, directly the 
reverse of this doctrine prevails. It is in these very 
cases, where the right is clear, but without known 
remedy at law, that the chancellor will interpose. 
The reason is the same, where the remedy is imper- 
fect or incomplete ; as in this case, the witness may 
not be able to make a compensation. Besides, the 
court of chancery, whenever the party is brought 
before it in a proper manner, will rather compel 
him to do the specific act, which he is bound in 
conscience to perform, and will not accept an equi- 
valent. Coop. ch. 128. 3d. Woodison, 382. It is 
also the duty of the party demurring, to point out, 
specifically, the remedy to which the other party 
may resort ; if it cannot be discovered from the face 
of the bill, it is not enough to suggest it in argu- 
ment. It is analogous to the subject of jurisdiction; 



16 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

the party is not to be sent to hunt a remedy from one 
court to another ; it is the duty of the defendant, if 
he deny our remedy, to show in his demurrer 
where it may be found. It is not in the power of 
the defendant to show us this, with certainty ; he 
does not even offer us a conjecture. On what 
ground, then, can he oppose our claiming it here? 
Does he deny that we have a right to the testimo- 
ny? no — but that IV e have a right to compel the 
defendant to give if. 

It seems to me, that the position which I have 
thus far been endeavouring to establish, with diffi- 
culty, because it is almost self-evident, may now be 
conceded to me ; to wit, that ive have both a legal 
and equitable right to the testimony of the defen- 
dant. It remains to be considered, whether this 
court possesses the power of granting a remedy ; for 
we do not ask the court to make law, to create a 
right, but to enforce and secure, that which is al- 
ready established. It is a maxim of law, that every 
right has its remedy, which the student learns as 
one of the rudiments of the science. There are said 
to be exceptions to this rule ; but it is the opinion 
of very able lawyers, that in the cases which have 
been cited as constituting those exceptions, the 
right itself is extinct. In the case of Ashby vs. 
White, Raym. 944, it is boldly asserted by lord 
Holt, that the English law suffers no right to he 
ivithout a remedy. lu the case before him, a right 



ON THE CHANCERY POWEUS. 17 

had been created by act of parliament, but without 
providing a remedy ; it was the right to be return- 
ed for a public office, and which, when thus cre- 
ated, stands precisely on a footing with a natural 
right. Lord Holt contended, in opposition to the 
other judges, that there was a remedy, and his opi- 
nion was afterwards confirmed in the house of lords. 
In the court of chancery such a question ought 
never to occur; for it is its peculiar province and 
duty, to see that no right be lost through defect of 
law, in providing a remedy. Nay, this defect of 
law is the very reason of its interposition, and the 
origin of its jurisdiction, in every case. There can 
be no question, but that, without the aid of the 
chancellor, we shall be left without the means of 
coercing the respondent to give evidence — to dis- 
close facts within his knowledge, which are abso- 
lutely essential to a fair decision of the cause de- 
pending in Virginia. It is evident that we have no 
certainty of any remedy in the courts of law, by ac- 
tion for damages, and this court will not send us to 
make the experiment, before it will interpose its au- 
thority. As to objections of form, or to the manner 
of our seeking relief, they can be obviated by the 
chancellor's decree ; this may be so shaped as to 
meet the exigence of the case, whether it be by at- 
taching the witness to testify before the commis- 
sioners, or compelling the respondent to make a 
disclosure of the facts sought in the bill. 
3 



18 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 



I might here rest my case, with perfect confi- 
dence of having proved every thing necessary to 
entitle me to the interposition of the chancellor. 
The question, however, from its novelty, demands 
a more full investigation. I will not content my- 
self with merely meeting the objections of the de- 
fendant, but will endeavour to ascend to higher 
ground, whence I may be enabled to overlook the 
whole of this intricate subject. Regarding this case 
as new in its circumstances, I will pray the inter- 
position of the chancellor, in virtue of those high 
superintending powers, with which by the nature 
of his office he is invested. I will ask him to seek 
the fountain of justice, from which all law must or 
ought to flow ; to consult expedience, the fitness of 
things, and to see that no injury be done to the citi- 
zen through denial of right. 

I am well aware, that I shall be told, that the pow- 
ers of the chancellor are circumscribed like those 
of every other judge, and that in administering jus- 
tice, he differs from others, not in the substance, 
but in the form. To this I answer that the dispo- 
sition to restrict the powers of the chancellor, has 
been carried to an extreme; the period is not so 
far removed from our times, when his jurisdiction 
was acknowledged to be much more extensive. How 
has it come to pass, that this has been confined to 
strict and narrow bounds? Has it been exactly de- 
fined by any positive law, or have the writers and 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 19 

judges at last agreed to fix their limits? No, his 
powers are definite, so far only as cases have been 
formed into precedents, and those precedents into 
principles ; but a field still remains open, as exten- 
sive as the endless variety of human transactions, 
ever assuming new shapes and combinations. 

All modern writers on the law of equity, confess 
the difficulty, if not impossibility of exactly defin- 
ing the powers of the chancellor. This surely is a 
circumstance in which this court differs from courts 
of law. Fonb. 20, Coop. ch. 25— Mitford 1, 1 
Bl. 91 . It is admitted that there are cases in which 
he possesses a legal discretion ; quod lex non exacte 
dejinet, sedboni viri permittet, Fonb. 21. But this 
discretion is attempted to be subjected to definition 
and reduced to rules, by which it is in fact made 
to signify nothing. A deplorable obscurity, and 
even contradiction, is discoverable in all the writers 
on the jurisdiction of the chancellor. Were I called 
upon to account for it, I should say that it proceeds 
from a conviction that cases must arise, for whicb 
the law has made no adequate provision, and at the 
same time, from an unwillingness to confide in the 
breast of any individual, the necessary discretionary 
power to provide for them. It is a jealousy of ar- 
bitrary discretion — a jealousy to be praised, but 
unfortunately, in the present instance, in contra- 
diction to practical utility. It is this, which has 
given rise to a strange and unintelligible distinction. 



20 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

between equity in general, and the system of Eng- 
lish equity jurisprudence, by which the chancellor 
is governed, not guided. " Equity," says Blackstone, 
(when he means equity in general,) '^is the soul and 
spirit of all law : positive law is construed, and ra- 
tional law is made by it." 3 Black. 429. He elsewhere 
adopts the definition of Grotius, (1 Bl. 62.) which 
is expressed in these words : " the correction of 
that, which by reason of its generality, is deficient." 
We are further informed that both courts of law and 
equity, seek the spirit of the law, that they inter- 
pret the law with the same freedom, and are guided 
by the same lights, act precisely on the same prin- 
ciples, in a word, that they are both courts of law, 
as well as of equity. Then why are we told by the 
learned author in another part of his work, that 
England is the only country in the world, in which 
the moral phenomenon is presented, of these powers 
being distributed to distinct and separate courts, 
while, elsewhere, they are both consigned to the 
same tribunal ? Let me ask, what distinct idea is 
there conveyed to the mind, when, notwithstanding 
this, we are told that the use of a court of equity is 
to supply what in the court of law may be defec- 
tive, and which, on the principles of natural jus- 
tice, deserves a particular consideration ? Fonb. 21 . 
This appears still more singular, when we find it 
conceded by the learned commentator, that all the 
more ancient writers agree in considering the power 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 21 

of the chancellor as purely discretionary! Such 
was the reason constantly urged by its enemies, on 
its first appearance. They were unwilling to ad- 
mit, that that discretion was not necessarily unlimit- 
ed, but might be sound, honest, and enlightened ; 
that it might be governed by positive law, guided 
by precedent, or that, where neither positive law 
nor precedents were to be found, that it might be 
left free to obey the law written upon the hearts of 
honest men, governed in the particular case by a 
refined and enlightened judgment. 

Two things occur to my mind which serve con- 
clusively to prove, that in its origin, at least, the 
power of the chancellor was not tied down or re- 
stricted, by arbitrary rules of decision, as in the case 
of other courts — that it was not circumscribed to 
narrow and definite limits. The first, is, that the 
court of chancery, in England, is no court of re- 
cord. 2 Esp. 473. And why ? Because its deci- 
sions are not secundum leges anglisBf but secundum 
equum et bonum; the decisions of the chancellor, 
forming no precedents of the law, by which his 
successor is bound. We find, that in the earlier.* 
books of chancery reports, the chancellors were in 
the habit of reversing the opinions of each other, 
with very little ceremony. 1 Vern. 194. The se- 
cond, is, that the chancellor has no jurisdiction in 
criminal matters, because th& well-being of society 
forbids, that discretionary power should be con- 



22 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

ferred to any individual, on subjects so important. 
1 Fonb. 23. Such discretion, is confided to the 
hands of the king alone, and has now become the 
only judicial power, immediately exercised by 
him ; having, in all other cases, delegated that pow- 
er to his courts of law and equity. 1 Fonb. Black. 
1 Harrison 15. 

It is not a matter of surprise, that writers should 
have failed to mark by clear and precise lines, the 
distinction between law and equity ; or the nature, 
and extent, of equity jurisdiction, whose origin 
may be traced to times of ignorance and prejudice. 
I am not to be understood as speaking of the court 
of equity, in the form which it has at present as- 
sumed, after so many struggles. In the progress of 
my argument, it will be seen, that I mean no disre- 
spect to this court, or to the system as now shaped, 
to which it resorts for aid, in the decision of parti- 
cular questions. I am discussing a topic purely ele- 
mentary, in order to clear the way for the reasoning 
which I mean to advance. The court of chancery 
took its rise from the deficiency and poverty of the 
common law — or rather, was forced into existence, 
by the narrow-mindedness of the common law 
judges, who, either from timidity, or ignorant at- 
tachment to their half-savage usages, were unwilling 
to extend them by a liberality of construction, which 
would enable them to embrace new cases. They 
were still more unwilling to receive a code already 



ON THE CHANCERY POWEUS. 23 

formed by some more enlightened society ; with bar- 
barian obstinacy, and pride, they haughtily rejected 
any code of laws adapted to the changes, and im- 
provements, which they were constantly experienc- 
ing from their advancement in the social arts. This 
deficiency soon became insupportable to individu- 
als. They must resort to some means by which it 
could be remedied. It was natural in a government, 
in its nature despotic, to apply immediately to the 
monarch, the fountain of all power in the state. 
The suitors presented themselves to the king; the 
king, occupied in the more important affairs of the 
chase, of the banquet, or of war, referred them to 
his chancellor — and the chancellor had recourse to 
the civil law. Hence the ^^ laboured and connected 
system," of the present chancery law, is chiefly in- 
debted for its materials to that admirable code. In 
time, this younger child grew to be the most ad- 
mired for its beauty, and accomplishments, while 
the elder son, and heir, spoiled by indulgence, grew 
each day more vulgar, and unamiable. Judges more 
enlightened, and liberal, at length arose, and at- 
tempted to free the common law from its barbarous 
roughness. At first, their well intended efforts, 
served only to render ^^ confusion worse confound- 
ed," — the potent interference of acts of parliament 
was required^ — with their assistance, and the favour 
of more enlightened times, the common law began 
at last to emulate the system of equity. I feel my- 



24 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

self irresistibly urged forward in the pursuit of this 
subject — although I am conscious of having already 
trespassed much on the patience of the chancellor. 
Who can mark, without a smile, the whimsical 
inconsistency, and contradiction, into which the 
greatest minds are betrayed, when acting under the 
influence of mere prejudice, or when labouring to 
support a fallacious theory? The enlightened 
Blackstone relates with exultation, and with true 
English pride, the manly deportment of the sturdy 
barons, at the parliament of Merton, who, in ab- 
horrence of the civil law, of which they were total- 
ly ignorant, exclaimed nolumus leges angliae mu- 
tare; while in another part of the same book, he re- 
probates, in the most contemptuous terms, the 
conduct of the poor Irish, for their obstinate resist* 
ance to the abolition of their Brehone* law, and to 
the introduction of the common law. And yet this 
civil law, so sturdily rejected, has found able pane- 
gyrists, and defenders, in many of the greatest mo- 
dern English writers ; in Gibbon, in sir William 
Jones, and even in the learned commentator him- 
self! Notwithstanding his denunciation, he unin- 
tentionally bestows upon it the highest encomiums. 
He advises the student to study the law as reduced 
to a science, in the code of imperial Rome — to seek 
it as one of the fountains of English law — it is a foun- 

* Brehoue, Brecken, from the glens and ridges of Breck- 
etif or fern, where the rude people met to make their laws. 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. ^5 

tain from which it has largely drawn. He calls 
Edward the First, the English Justinian, and ac- 
knowledges, that the earlier writers of the common 
law, Glanville, Brackton, and the author of Fleta^ 
have transcribed freely from the civil law. In fact, 
if what was thus freely transcribed, were to be sub- 
tracted from the old English common law, there 
would be little left besides the feudal rules of te- 
nures, arising out of a species of petty tyranny, 
much of which has become obsolete, even in Britain, 
and which, in this country, is confined to still smaller 
compass. Without such a transcription, the laws 
of England would only be adapted to the rudest 
stage of society. But for the jealous ignorance of 
the English barons, who feared that their petty ty- 
ranny might be controlled by the more powerful de- 
spotism of a monarch, and obstinately rejected the 
Roman code, through ignorance of its character, 
we should have had no chancery court, or chancery 
law. At the same time, I own, that it has given 
rise to a system more consonant to justice, and en- 
lightened reason, than the common law ; to a modi- 
fication of the civil law, better suited to our cir- 
cumstances, and to the state of civilized life in mo 
dern times. 

And here, if I may be allowed the digression, I 
would ask, what was this code which aroused an 
enmity so violent in the barons, and against which 
English prejudice was directed for so many centu- 

4 



26 ON THE CHANCERY POVVEUS. 

ries, and which even now prevails? Next to di- 
vine revelation, it was the most rich, the most vari- 
ous, and comprehensive treasury of precepts, ever 
collected, and arranged, for the regulation of hu- 
man actions. No circumstances could have existed 
more favourable to the formation of a perfect code. 
Rome had already flourished more than a thousand 
years — she had long been the mistress of the world 
— the wealth of nations had been poured into her 
lap — the Greeks, the most enlightened people that 
ever lived, had transferred their arts, their know- 
ledge and refinement to the eternal city — she had 
embraced the Christian religion, the touchstone of 
moral truth and beauty — almost every social rela- 
tion which required the aid of laws to define or to 
protect — every art, commerce, or mode of existence, 
was known to her experience. At such a time, 
and in such a country, with such complicated inte- 
rests to embrace, the immortal code was framed. 
Yet against this code it was that the sturdy barons 
directed their furious hate! The writers on law in 
the time of Justinian, had accumulated to many 
thousand volumes, they had become even more nu- 
merous than the tomes which load the shelves of an 
English lawyer. The Scaevolas, the Ulpians, the 
Papinians, like our Cokes, our Bacons, our Black- 
stones, had laboured to condense and reduce this vast 
and unwieldy mass to the form of a science. Under 
Theodosius, there had been an effort to comprehend 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS* 2f 

the whole in a digest; and althoiigli a mighty effort^, 
it was not crowned with success. At length, in the 
sixth century of the Christian era, one more seri- 
ous and successful, was made to accomplish this 
magnificent enterprise. The study of a whole life 
had heen insufficient to attain some acquaintance 
with a species of learning, so voluminous, immetho- 
dical, and complex. But the gathering of ages had 
brought together a vast magazine of materials. An 
edifice was raised at last, which bids fair to outlive, 
as it has surpassed, every other regal monument. 
The work was confided to Tribonian, and to nine- 
teen others, chosen for their learning from the whole 
empire. The most ample powers were given to new- 
model, to abridge, to abrogate^ to annul, to enact, 
according to their best judgments. And did these 
men at last reach the point of perfection? No— 
for they were men. Justinian, vain of this noble 
edifice, and believing that since the muUitudc of 
human transactions had now their rules, and that 
no case unprovided for could possibly arise, de- 
nounced the penalty of death, on any one who should- 
dare to comment on them, or attempt an interpre- 
tation, beyond their letter. But alas ! he soon be- 
came sensible of his folly. If there be a moral' 
axiom, it is that of Grotius — that no finite rule can 
embrace a7i infinite subject. It was soon discover- 
ed, that without consulting the spirit of the law, or 
establishing a court of equity, invested with the 



28 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

necessary discretion, cases would occur, for which 
his boasted code had made no provision. Justinian 
was, therefore, compelled to repeal his unwise pro- 
hibition ; and, but six years afterwards, he found it 
necessary to publish a new edition with improve- 
ments and augmentations. Here is a lesson to those 
who hold that a code of laws must embrace every 
possible case — to those case men, who dare not trust 
themselves in a recurrence to the elementary prin- 
ciples of justice, where the law is silent, or where 
its letter, and not its reason, applies. Have we at 
last arrived at that state of perfection which the 
code of Rome could not reach? Permit me to take 
a rapid glance at the map of our common and chan- 
cery law, and we shall then see, whether they can 
lay claim to this lofty pre-eminence. 

Scarcely had Justinian retired from the stage of 
life, when his works were covered with the dust of 
oblivion. The corruption, the rottenness, which 
pervaded every part of the empire — the decline of 
the Roman power in Asia and Africa, together with 
the eruption of savage hordes, once more spread 
the night of barbarism over the fairest climes of 
Europe. For five centuries the laws of Justinian 
lay covered in a common grave, with all the refine- 
ments of civilized society. But when the morn of 
science once more dawned on Europe, 

«To glad the nations with redoubled ray," 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 29 

the immortal code experienced a glorious resurrec- 
tion. The Pandects brought to light at Amalfi, and 
the code discovered at Ravenna, were instantly ap- 
preciated, where any progress was made in letters 
and social arts. In Italy, Spain, France, and in 
part of Germany, they were received with super- 
stitious veneration. They were taught in the schools 
as the most admirable precepts of wisdom, and they 
were appealed to as oracles for the determination 
of private differences, where the imperfect codes 
of those nations were silent. Alphonso the eleventh, 
of Spain, ambitious of the title of legislator, esta- 
blished a uniform code through his kingdom, based 
on the civil law, having regard to peculiar and lo- 
cal customs. His example was imitated by John 
of Portugal. In France the civil law was every 
where gladly consulted, when the customary law fell 
short of its purpose : and a people emerging from 
the state of barbarism, must often experience the 
poverty of laws, framed alone for the simplest state 
of social life. The same judge who pronounced 
the customary law, had also recourse to the civil 
law for help, when the customs of his own country 
no longer served him. Very different was its re- 
ception in England ; whether to be attributed to 
ignorant obstinacy, or to that unbending disposition, 
which indicates in its rough state, that gem, which 
becomes a noble manliness and independence of 
character, under the influence of reason, certain it 



30 OM THE CHANCERY POAVERS* 

is, that it was at first opposed with savage ferocity.* 
Instead of retaining and incorporating their favour- 
ite customs, they chose to reject the whole code. 
Yet what says one of the most enlightened law wri- 
ters England has produced ; '^ there is no reason/' 
says Sir William Jones, *^ why we should not shorten 
our labours by recurring to the laws of Rome." 
Early in the thirteenth century, the English clergy, 
who then occupied both the bar and the bench, 
and to whom was confined nearly all the learning 
of the age, attempted the introduction of the laws 
of Justinian ; but this was opposed with indiscrimi- 
nating inveteracy by the same barons, with the 
whole force of that prejudice and bigotry, which 
prevails amongst rude people, who are inimical to 
the introduction of any thing new, from the inve- 
teracy of habit and the pride of ignorance. The 
spirit of opposition carried them to ridiculous ex- 
tremes. An act of parliament imposed an oath on 
every person, in a judicial station, to support the 
laws of the land, that is, the common law, as distin- 
guished from the civil. The clergy were now 
driven from all the legal offices which they before 
had filled, and no judicial function, excepting that 



* The enmity to the laws of Justinian may perhaps be 
chiefly referred to the definition of law in the institute,which 
refers it entirely to the rcill of the prince. B\U this had no- 
thing to do with the code itself. 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 3 1 

of chancellor, which was then scarcely known, was 
I'etained in the hands of any ecclesiastic. The ef- 
fect may be easily imagined. The common law 
administered by laymen, in a bigotted manner at- 
tached to their own customs and usages, stubbornly 
adhering to the mere letter or words of the rule, 
and refusing to go a single step beyond them, these 
rules were soon found entirely inadequate to the 
purposes of justice, among a people who were every 
day experiencing some improvement. 

The laws of a rude people are no more suited to 
a refined state of society, growing out of improved 
agriculture, extensive commerce, and manufactures, 
than the bark hut, or skin cloak of the savage, to 
the man of civilization. To this narrow-minded ad- 
herence to the letter of the law, we may trace the 
slavish obedience of the present day to the magic 
of precedents.* The suitors, probably in a thou- 
sand instances, finding no redress, in cases, where, 
according to the plainest dictates of natural justice, 

* See a remarkable case in 4 T. R. 560. A person was 
there actually condemned by an ex post facto law. It had 
been established by former adjudications, that an act of 
parliament takes effect from the beginning of the session ; 
and an act passed at the close of the session, had render- 
ed penal what was before lawful ; the fact charged was 
committed between the time of the legal, and the actual 
passage of the law: adjudged guilty. Here was a sacrifice 
of principle to precedent. The law was afterwards cor- 
rected by statute. 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 



they were entitled to it, must have frequently re- 
tired from the courts, with disappointment and dis- 
gust. 3 Bl. 49 — 50 — 51. 54 — 1 Harrison's chanc. 
5 — 10 Cooper ch. 23. 1 Vern. 178. Application 
was therefore made to the king in person, as the 
supreme judge of his kingdom, who referred the pe- 
tition to his chancellor, usually a pious ecclesiastic, 
and the remedy found here, even according to 
Blackstone, was, until a late period, desultory and 
uncertain, depending on the private opinion of the 
chancellor. In process of time, the whole equitable 
power of the king, in civil matters, was delegated 
to the chancellor, who became one of the highest 
judicial officers in the kingdom. But it does not 
appear that any regular connected system of chan- 
cery law, was formed, even as late as the time of lord 
Bacon, who may be said to have sketched its out- 
line. Perhaps the uncertainty, and looseness, of the 
proceedings in the court of chancery, in his day, 
may serve, in some measure, to account for the la- 
mentable fall of that wonderful man. It was not un- 
til the year 1673, that under sir Hineage Finch, the 
system of equity assumed a regular form, or that 
the chancellors began to consult the decisions of 
their predecessors for their guidance. All the early 
writers speak of the chancellor's powers, as purely 
discretionary ; nor do I think the day has yet ar- 
rived when the system has attained its utmost point 
of perfection ; when every possible case is provided 



ON THK (JHANCERY I'OWKRS. 



for by precedents; when it has ceased to be neces- 
sary to appeal to the principles of natural justice ; 
or, that the discretionary power which the chan- 
cellor at first possessed, may be considered as en- 
tirely taken away. That it has been narrowed, I 
admit ; but, I must contend, that enough is left for 
all the purposes we may require. 

I have rapidly passed in review, the history of 
the chancery power, from its rise, down to the 
formation of the present system of equity ; I will 
take a glance at the other principal branch of Eng- 
lish jurisprudence, from the time of its unhappy 
separation- -a separation, like that of body and soul : 
for at first, it was, in fact, a separation of the letter 
of the law, from its spirit. It is unnecessary to re- 
peat what has been said, with respect to the incon- 
venience and embarrassment vv^hich ensued. All 
writers agree as to the original deficiency of the 
common law. It consisted of little more than a few 
scraps of the civil law, mingled with the rude cus- 
toms introduced by the Saxon, or Danish conquer- 
ors.* The compilations of Alfred, or Edward, 

* The Roman law was in full force in England as late 
as the emperor Severus. The much-famed civilian, Papi- 
nian, was for some time the chief judge of the Prsetorian 
court at York, and had Paul and Ulpian for his assessors. 
Dion. Cassius in vita Severi. It is to be presumed, that the 
code of Alfred, supposed to be lost, but which may only 
have lost its name, incorporated many of the laws which 
5 



34 ON THE CIIANCEKY TOWERS. 

could not have been voluminous. At a time, com- 
paratively modernj notwithstanding the accessions 
from the civil law, which are visibly such, it was 
but a disconnected bundle of rules. It was scarcely 
before the modern times of Coke and Bacon, that it 
had begun to assume a respectable form. Bacon 
has observed, that, as the English language is so 
much the richer, by reason of accessions from others, 
so, the laws of England are the better for being 
borrowed from every other nation. I cannot refrain 
from expressing my regret, that they had not bor- 
rowed more freely from the code of Rome. The 
rapid melioration in the state of manners, gave rise 
to a thousand wants before unknown, wants by which 
men are rendered more dependant on each other, 

had been in force in the country, before the Saxon con- 
quest. As late as the fifth, and even a part of the sixth 
century, the population of England was as enlightened as 
any portion of the Roman empire, and there is every rea- 
son to believe, that the barbarian conquerors pursued the 
same course as in the neighbouring countries. It is inva- 
riably observed, that the barbarous nations who had set- 
tled themselves in the civilized provinces, were more apt 
to assume the manners and habits of the vanquished, than 
the latter, to adopt the usages of their rude conquerors. 
It is therefore, even now, extremely difficult to say, how 
much of the common law is English, or Saxon, and how 
much of it Roman. No inconsiderable portion of the civil 
law, was also infused into it, by the French lawyers, after 
the Norman conquest. 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 35 

and society is linked more closely together. The 
deficiency of the common law became so apparent, 
that the judges, not possessed of sufficient boldness 
to consult at once its spirit, were compelled to re- 
sort to the invention of ingenious fictions, and to a 
thousand intellectual distortions and subterfuges, to 
escape from the cave of ignorance, and reach the 
light of reason. They dared not openly call in the 
aid of some other code. The extraordinary subtilty 
of distinctions, and complexity, which now took 
place, is at once a subject of regret and admiration. 
The pleadings, more especially, had become so la- 
mentably intricate, and so replete with absurd refine- 
ments, as to be productive of frequent injustice, 
and it required the potent interference of a statute 
to cut away the inextricable web, in which the law 
had been completely entangled. It had become a 
labyrinth, where, like that of Crete, none, without 
the order of Minos, could enter, and from whence 
it required the clue of Ariadne to escape. A slavish 
adherence to the mere letter of the law, may often 
times be productive of the greatest injustice---may 
often be the extreme of wickedness and folly. 

It was not until the court of chancery had ac- 
quired the most decided preference, that the com- 
mon law underwent a sensible improvement, from 
repeated acts of parliament, from the commentaries 
of great lawyers, and from the interpretations of 
more liberal and enlightened judges. The spirit of 



36 ON THK CHANCERY POWERS. 

the law, began to be consulted here, as well as in 
the court of chancery. This was even carried so 
far, as to become the subject of complaint; inas- 
much, as it augmented the difficulties of exactly 
defining the boundary which separated the two ju- 
risdictions. To this cause, we may, perhaps, ascribe 
the doctrine which prevails at this day, that, ex- 
cepting in the mode of proceeding, there is no dif- 
ference between them. But, I again demand, if the 
chancellor ever possessed the power of supplying 
what the law had left imperfect, by recurring to the 
fountain of equity, when was this power lost or with- 
drawn- --when was that fountain dried up? It is 
conceded by all writers, that in every well regu- 
lated government, there must be somewhere a pow- 
er of supplying what is defective in the code of laws, 
and of preventing the happening of injustice, in 
cases where no provision has been made. Fonb. 6. 
Coop. 38--- 1 Bl. 62. ---Such is the unavoidable im- 
perfection of all human laws and institutions, that 
new and unforeseen cases will still continue to 
arise, and which can only be decided by the spirit 
of the law ; cases, which, if presented to the mind 
of the legislator, when the rule was formed, would 
have been embraced. It is this spirit which deserves 
the name of equity ; it is this which was possessed 
by the Roman Praetor, to whom it was intrusted, for 
the purpose of aiding, supplying, and interpreting 
the \Q.vf : juvare, supplere, interpretare^ sednon mu- 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 37 

tare. It exists in every court in the world; except, 
until of late, in the English court of law ; it existed 
before the unnatural separation of law and equity, 
in England, and is even said to have been exercised 
both by the Aula i^egis, and the Wittenageraote. 
This separation is not unlike the custom which pre- 
vailed in the Roman theatre, where one performer 
gesticulated while another spoke. The court of law 
has come, at last, to speak, as well as gesticulate, 
and hence proceeds, in some measure, a confusion 
of tongues. 

I challenge any one to point out to me the time, 
and manner, of withdrawing from the chancellor 
the power which he once possessed of providing for 
new and unforeseen cases, where the law is silent, 
but where there is a right for which the law ought 
to provide. Fonb. 23. Mitford 120 — Harrison 15 
— Cooper 282. I do not ask the chancellor to make, 
or change the law, but I ask him to apply the prin-' 
ciples of natural justice, where a case occurs, in 
which they are the only guides. I do not deny that 
the chancellor is bound by positive law, where the 
law meets the case ; I do not pretend that he should 
consult the mere circumstances of every case, or 
be at liberty to consider the hardship to persons, in 
the operation of some positive general law. No, it 
is his duty to bow to the lav/s like every other 
judge. I do not pretend that the chancellor should 
have the power of putting aside the rule of primo- 



38 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

geniturcj because the eldest son is unworthy, while 
the other members of the family are meritorious. 
To alter the canons of descent, would be to put 
himself above the legislator, instead of giving a more 
perfect effect to his intentions. It is the rule of 
the common law that land shall not ascend — that it 
shall not go to a brother of the half blood, but rather 
escheat — that it shall not be liable to simple con- 
tract debts — that personal actions die with the per- 
son — that a devisee may be in a better situation 
than the heir — these are positive rules which the 
English chancellor has no discretion to suspend. 
It is true that in this country, in most of these cases, 
a more enlightened rule prevails, and many of the 
withered branches have been torn from the tree ;* 
but the praise of these acts is due to the legislature, 
with whom the necessary power resides. I do not 
deny that the chancellor ought to be guided by 
precedents, that he should follow them in cases even 

* The improvement which the English common law has 
undergone in this country is wonderful. For thirty years 
a silent revolution has been rapidly advancing through all 
the states. It is yet far from having completed the work 
of reform. What is somewhat remarkable, this revolu- 
tion is less to be attributed to the wisdom and liberality 
of our judges, than to the general diffusion of information 
among the people. A still mightier revolution in the 
legal system is fast approaching; in the language of Paine, 
"it approaches nearer, and still more near." 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 39 

where their reason may not appear to him perfectly 
satisfactory. It is undoubtedly proper, on the score 
of public policy, that much regard should be paid 
to certainty and uniformity of decision; but we 
should also beware that this be not carried to an 
extreme, which may sacrifice justice and principle 
to doubtful precedent. I am willing to concede that 
we have gained much by the system which has al- 
ready been created out of the decisions in chancery ; 
but I must also declare my opinion, that we have 
lost much, if in consequence of this progress, the 
power has been withdrawn from the chancellor, of 
providing for new cases, where justice requires it, 
and which a statute, by reason of its prospective 
operation, cannot reach. I do not pretend that the 
chancellor has authority to pull down the edifice, or 
change its form; this might lead to dangerous con- 
sequences ; but until the edifice be complete and 
perfect in all its parts, every chancellor is an archi- 
tect, and as such may add another stone to the build- 
ing. The case which I now advocate is altogether 
new — it runs counter to no positive law, and is 
within the reason of no contrary precedent, or de- 
cision, or rule of practice. I, therefore, call upon 
the chancellor to interpose, and to prevent the 
happening of injustice, in virtue of those ample 
powers with which he is invested by the nature of 
his office — I ask the chancellor to seek the fountain 
of equity, and draw from its living waters — to de- 



40 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

cide as the first chancellor would have decided— 
the first chancellor, who was the delegate of a king 
— the chancellor of Maryland, in the fulfilment of 
his high trust, is also the delegate of a king — but 
not of an earthly king. 

But I will be told that the rule of law on which 
the respondent grounds his demurrer, is of that po- 
sitive kind that claims implicit obedience. This 
leads me to consider the nature of the rule itself 
on which he relies, and I trust I will show that as 
respects the present case, it is no better than if no 
rule of the kind existed, for it is not applicable. 
As a general rule, I admit, that a mere witness can- 
not be made a party; but I will contend, that if the 
reason on which it rests, is wanting on the present oc- 
casion, our case must rest on the principles of natural 
justice, and the chancellor must resort to his gene- 
ral powers, which authorize him to apply those prin- 
ciples to anomalous cases. 

It will surely not be contended that this rule is 
one of the landmarks of the law, which, on the 
score of public policy and the safety of third per- 
sons, ought not to be removed. It is no positive, 
and arbitrary precept, like the canons of descent ; it 
is no solemn adjudication which cannot be disturbed 
without unsettling the right to property held under 
it. No — it can lay no claim to such high authority. 
It belongs to that artificial system, contrived by 
courts, for the purpose of ministering in the appli- 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 41 

cation of the laws and the principles of justice ; a 
system founded on good sense, claiming no impera- 
tive force, further than as it is auxiliary to the ad- 
ministration of justice, and consonant to sound rea- 
son. It is a mere rule of practice, first adopted for 
convenience, and which comes not within the scope 
of the ground of refusal, because ita lex scripta est. 
If any part of the system of common law, can justly 
claim the name of a science, it is that which has 
grown up in the courts, to facilitate the administra- 
tion of the laws ; and more particularly, the rules, 
which relate to evidence, are founded purely on 
reason, and even when created by statute, a libe- 
rality of construction is permitted scarcely known 
in other branches of the system. Here, indeed, it 
may properly be said, that the reason ceasing, the 
law itself ceases ; cessante ratione, cessat et ipsa 
lex. In fact, the reason of the laiv, is here the law 
itself; otherwise it would be an empty sound, a sha- 
dow, a mockery. Whenever this artificial system, 
if implicitly pursued, would defeat the end of its 
creation, it is made to yield, and to be subservient 
to the great ends of substantial justice. The case 
is either admitted as an exception, which falls pro- 
perly within the reason of the rule, or as entirely 
anomalous. Surely it would be more proper, to be 
altogether without such rules, if they should, in any 
instance, defeat the object which they were design- 
ed to protect. I would refer the chancellor to the 
6 



42 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

case in 3d Equity cases^ 410, where lord Hardwick, 
with the assistance of the other judges, decided, 
that a Gentoo might be sworn after the form of his 
own theology, although the law to the contrary was 
laid down by Coke and other writers. On that oc- 
casion. Chief Justice Willes used these expressions ; 
but there is one I'uky firm, eternal, and immutable, 
which never can vary, the rule of natural justice; 
and I apprehend these rules of evidence, are, un- 
der proper circumstances, and on proper occasions, 
to give way to that. 

There is, indeed, scarcely one of these rules, 
however positive it may appear, that has not admit- 
ted exceptions on proper occasions ; and for the 
same reason that the first were admitted, will con- 
tinue to admit others, when proper cases are pre- 
sented. What rule is there better established, 
than that one cannot be a witness for himself? And 
yet on the statute of hue and cry, from the necessity 
of the case, a plaintiff has been admitted to testify. 
It is a rule that husband and wife shall not be wit- 
nesses for or against each other ; yet a bankrupt's 
wife, from public policy, or the necessity of the 
thing, has been compelled to discover the effects 
of her husband: 1 Wills. 611. A plaintiff without 
such necessity, may be a witness, when the reason 
which would exclude him, in common cases, ceases 
to operate. 1 Peer. Will. 289. These rules, adopt- 
ed by the courts to facilitate their proceedings, give 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS, 43 

way in the same manner, when justice requires it. 
There is no rule hetter established, than that all 
persons interested, shall be made parties to a bill in 
chancery, but this has yielded to many exceptions, 
where justice required them, and where the rea- 
son of the rule did not forbid. Where one of two 
partners happen to be out of the jurisdiction of the 
county, a suit brought against the other alone, will 
suffice. 2 Atk. 510. The rule has been dispensed 
with, in the case of creditors suing for an account 
of their deceased debtor's estate, and in that of le- 
gatees, where one may sue for all the rest ; a few 
may likewise represent the whole, in the case of 
societies, composed of numerous members. And 
why were these rules pushed aside, after having 
been firmly established? Because, in the particu- 
lar instance, their enforcement would be destruc- 
tive of the very end of all law. In opposition 
almost to the very words of the statute of frauds, a 
party has been compelled to discover whether a 
devise was not made to him for a purpose not ex- 
pressed in the will I The law will not suffer a sta- 
tute enacted for the purpose of preventing fraud, 
to be the instrument of fraud. Cooper 59. The 
court will not suffer the rules adopted for the se- 
curity and facility of justice, to be perverted to the 
means of injustice. 

There is another exception to the rule, that all 
persons interested must be made parties : the want 



44 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

of parties, is no objection to a mere bill of discovery, 
like the present ; as no relief is prayed, there is no 
subject of litigation: for as the reason of the rule, 
the preventing a multiplicity of suits, and the dis- 
couraging of unnecessary litigation, does not apply, 
the law itself has n@ application. Eq. cas. ab. 170 
— Mitf. 220. I now assert with confidence, that 
the rule of practice, under which the defendant 
would shelter himself, was not made for his case, 
because the reasons upon which it is founded, on 
this occasion ceases. Is there any difference in the 
nature, or character, of the rule opposed to us, 
from those already cited? Has it thus far refused 
to admit exceptions ?---Must we yield faith and obe- 
dience to it, without daring to question the reason 
on which it stands? No---it is not only of a nature 
precisely similar to all the others, but has actually 
admitted exceptions when the reasons required. 
^^The exceptions to this rule,^' says Cooper, ^'are 
the book-keepers of a corporation, agents, auction- 
eers, and some other persons." This is sufiicient 
to show, that, however positive the rule may have 
been originally, it has given way, at the requisition 
of justice and sound policy. I will now examine 
whether reason applies to the present case. 

Before I enter upon this examination, it will, in 
the first place, be proper to see how far the rule is 
at all applicable to our local situation, and peculiar 
institutions. It can hardly be supposed, that every 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 45 

rule of practice, or of evidence, (unless founded 
upon the immutable principles of justice, the same 
in every land, and in every age,) framed by the 
British courts for the purpose of regulating their 
proceedings, should be received without allowance, 
or modification, by courts differently organized, 
and existing under different circumstances. There 
are laws, which grow out of a certain state of things, 
which, in that state, may be consonant to justice, 
but which, in a different state, may be directly the 
reverse. In Holland, the killing a stork, is a capi- 
tal crime, because that bird contributes to preserve 
the dykes, upon which the safety of the country de- 
pends ; but it would be ridiculous in this country, 
to estimate the life of a stork as highly as that of a 
man. In England, there may be good reason why 
a witness, in no instance, can be made a party ; 
there may be no necessity for it ; but this may not 
be the case here. But even in England, a witness 
may be made a party, and coinpelled to pay da- 
mages, for refusing to give testimony. Let us sup- 
pose, that in this country, there were no other mode 
of compelling him to give testimony, where is the 
reason which forbids his being made a party, in a 
bill of discovery instituted to compel him to testify? 
But is there not an evident and material diversity, 
between the constitution and relations of our courts, 
and those of Great Britain? Are there not many 
important circumstances peculiar to each ? All the 



46 ON TrtE CMANCEUY POWERS. 

English courts derive their power from the same 
source, and their proceedings are corrected by the 
same authority : this alone is a material difference. 
The high court of chancery extends its power over 
the whole kingdom, although inferior courts of 
chancery are established. In this country, the state 
courts derive their authority from different and in- 
dependent sources, and their decisions are not sub- 
ject to revision out of the state. 

It will not be pretended, that the judicial esta- 
blishments of the different states, are on the same 
footing with relation to each other, as the courts of 
Great Britain with respect to those of France, or 
other foreign country. — Even there, a disposition 
to harmonize with each other, in the administration 
of justice, prevails to a great extent; for justice, 
like the sciences and the arts, should be of no coun- 
try. In the United States, we are one nation, sepa- 
rated in a most original and peculiar manner, by 
distinct political boundaries, but which have no ma- 
terial influence on the habits, transactions, and in- 
tercourse of business. Abroad, we are known but 
as one people ; at home, every thing of a national 
character, is intrusted to one general government. 
Sensible, however, of the inconveniences which 
must ensue from our domestic relations, being thus 
fettered by our political institutions, every means 
have been adopted which would tend to lessen them. 
The federal constitution, the different legislatures, 



ON THE CWANCEKY POWEKt:* 47 

the courts of the United States, and of the indivi- 
dual states, have all concurred in labouring to ob- 
viate, as far as possible, the difficulties which from 
time to time may have been observed. The authen- 
tication of records and papers, has been provided 
for by laws; the courts have decided, that the judg- 
ments of the courts of a sister state, are domestic, 
not foreign ; and they have gone far towards doing 
away any ideal and unnecessary distinctions, by de- 
claring, that the discharge of an insolvent debtor in 
one state, shall be a discharge in another. In every 
instance, where the subject has presented itself, the 
courts have manifested this kind of liberality ; a libe- 
rality, which is uniformly the interest of the whole. 
No possible danger or inconvenience can result 
from its being carried to extremes. Occupying por- 
tions of the same soil, speaking the same language, 
enjoying the same free institutions, allied in the 
closest manner by the ties of consanguinity, and all 
the varied transactions of business and social inter- 
course, if such a liberality did not exist, our wise 
political systems, devised for purposes of a different 
nature, would be productive of the most serious 
embarrassments. In fact, the same intimacy of re- 
lationship, exists between different states, as between 
different counties of the same state. 

Am I not justified, therefore, in saying, that the 
relations which the different states hold toward 
each other, is of a different kind from that which 



-* 



48 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

Great Britain holds to foreign countries? And it 
follows, that the courts of chancery in America, are 
on a different footing from the courts of chancery 
in Great Britain; and the rules formed to regulate 
their proceedings, are not to be received in all in- 
stances in this country, without making a proper 
allowance. I will put a case, which will illustrate 
my meaning ; suppose it were agreed on all hands, 
that the present defendant is a proper party, to be 
compelled to discover, but that the discovery is 
sought in aid of o. court of chancery in Virginia ; 
would the English rule be objected to us, that a bill 
of discovery will not be entertained in aid of a court 
of chancery or an ecclesiastical court? But in Eng- 
land, these courts can compel a discovery them- 
selves, and from the difference in our situation the 
reason does not apply. Let us suppose an act of 
parliament, to have forbidden the courts of chancery 
to entertain bills of discovery against mere witnesses, 
would we not, in adopting such act, first examine 
whether there does not exist such a difference in 
our situation, as would have been taken into consi- 
deration, had the act been at the same time intend- 
ed for our use ? In England, there might be no 
necessity for this mode of proceeding, because other 
sufficient means of compelling the witness to dis- 
close facts, had already been devised ; but in this 
country, the case might be different. Is it not to 
be presumed, that with a knowledge of the possible 



-• ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 49 

occurrence of a case like the present, we should 
have been excepted from the too general operation 
of the law ? And if we had not been, would not a 
sound and equitable construction of the statute have 
procured for us sdch exemption ? But this is no 
positive enactment of the legislature; it is a rule 
adopted originally by the English courts, founded 
on justice, calculated for convenience in the de- 
spatch of business, and arising out of a judicial or- 
ganization, in a great measure peculiar to herself. 

If, then, the rule, from the mere circumstance of 
having originated in a different state of things, and 
being adapted to courts differently organized, is to 
be taken with allowance, what are we to say when 
the reason upon which it is founded ceases altoge- 
ther? When, in a case similar to the present, even 
in England, were it possible for such to occur, the 
rule vvould be compelled to give way. 

What are the reasons given for this rule, that a 
bill of discovery will not be entertained against a 
mere witness? They are two : first, because the 
witness, not being interested in the cause, may be 
compelled to give evidence in the courts of law ; 
secondly, because the testimony or discovery can- 
not be made use of between other parties, and the 
court of chancery will not sit to do what is idle and 
useless. The first does not apply to this case ; for 
the court in Virginia cannot compel the witness to 
give evidence, having no authority over the citi- 
7 



50 ON THE CHANCEUY POWERS. 

zens of this state. The witness is therefore pre- 
cisely in the situation, in which a party would be 
in a suit at law ; where, in consequence of there be- 
ing no power in such court to compel a party to 
give evidence against himself, resort is had to a 
court of chancery. When the situation and rea- 
son are the same, why is the law at variance? In 
the first case, the court of chancery interposed, be- 
cause of the want of power in the court of law, and 
because, without this interposition, a party might 
be denied a natural right ; and when a witness ap- 
pears to be in the same situation as parties generally 
are, is there not the same reason, justice, or neces- 
sity, for the interposition ? What is it that is sought 
in both instances? It is the knowledge of certain 
facts, confined to the breasts of the parties, or of the 
witnesses, which they are bound to disclose, in or- 
der that justice may be dotie. If courts will compel 
even parties to disclose facts which may be pre- 
judicial to their own interests, is there not a still 
stronger reason to compel mere witnesses to testify? 
Upon what does the chancellor's power act in these 
cases? It is upon the facts, no matter in whose 
possession they may be. And why, I will again 
ask, is a party thus called upon to bear witness 
against himself, or why is a bill, on any occasion, 
filed for the mere purpose of procuring testimony ? 
It is because the courts afford no suiRcient remedy. 
The court of chancery will not interfere in aid 



ON THE CHANCEUY POAVERS. 51 

of an ecclesiastical court, because that court can, 
itself, compel a party to discover. In fact, the true 
rule is, not that a mere witness shall not be made a 
party to a bill of discovery, but that there are other 
means of obtaining his testimony: this, in the ear- 
liest books of chancery reports, is the reason given 
for refusing to entertain such bills. — 1 Vern. 213. 
It was at a subsequent period, that the words of the 
rule were changed, when it was observed, that, ac- 
cording to the judicial system of Great Britain, a 
witness could, in all cases, be compelled to give 
testimony : yet, even there, if this wer^ found to 
be a mistake, the reason of the rule would still be 
regarded as the rule itself. In the case cited, the 
interposition of the chancellor's power was denied, 
because the plaintiff had other means of obtaining 
the testimony; and, in another case, (3 Atk. 215,) 
it was denied, because the party could compel the 
witness to be exatnined at law. Let the defendant 
show us how we can obtain his testimony by com- 
pulsion. Will it be said, that we might institute a 
bill to perpetuate testimony, or to take depositions 
de bene esse? Of what use v/ould this be to us, and 
would the facts warrant such a procedure? Could 
we make affidavit, that being in possession of real 
property, we were apprehensive of a lawsuit at some 
future period, when our testimony would be lost ? 
or that the witness was infirm, or about to depart 
the state ? This would be absurd in the highest de- 



52 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

gree ; these are remedies provided for in cases alto- 
gether different. 

There is no mode in our power, of compelling 
the defendant to disclose the facts within his know- 
ledge, but the present. The rule under which he, 
has therefore sought to shelter himself, has no ap- 
plication as it respects this case, being divested of its 
reason ; it is mere words without sense or meaning. 
The exception in the ease of the corporation, shows 
the principles upon which the courts have acted. 
There, as the corporation could not be compelled 
to give evidence, because incapable of an oath, or 
liability for perjury, the secretary, a mere witness, 
was made a party, for the purpose of procuring a 
discovery of facts. This, it is said, was founded 
upon the necessity of the case; and what is this ne- 
cessity? Unless we are to understand that justice 
required the exception, or rendered it necessary, 
I am at a loss to know the meaning of the term as 
thus applied. And does not the same justice, the 
same necessity, exist on the present occasion? 

^^But," says the respondent, "I fear this dis- 
covery can be of no use to you, after you shall have 
procured it, for the court in Virginia will not re- 
ceive it in evidence." — This is truly a kind solici- 
tude for our interests; it would have been more 
thankfully received, however, if the witness, in- 
stead of shielding himself behind the excuse, ^^ I 
cannot be compelled,'' had deigned to testify in the 



i ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 53 

first instance; before the commissioners. In order, 
however, to satisfy his mind on this score, I will en- 
deavour to show to him that it will not be altogether 
useless. This court will certainly not indulge a 
party in mere whim or caprice, or lend its aid in 
things which can be of no substantial benefit. The 
court will not entertain a bill of discovery, or one to 
perpetuate testimony, where it is evident that the 
plaintiff has no title ; nor will it lend its aid to pro- 
cure a mere exparte affidavit, not sought with a 
view to any cause depending. But the court will 
presume that we have not gone to the trouble and 
expense of filing this bill, in order to procure what 
will be altogether useless to us ; the presumption is, 
that it will be of use. It must appear to the court, 
that its aid is sought to no purpose ; is this certain 
in the present case? Will the court of this state un- 
dertake to say, under what circumstances tlie court 
of Virginia will admit testimony? I presume there 
was no inquiry of this nature, when the court of 
chancery in England entertained a bill in aid of the 
court in Spain ! And is not this reason to be taken 
in conjunction with the first ? Is it not rather a con- 
sequence of the first? Would not the same justice 
and necessity which compelled the witness to an- 
swer in this court, demand the admission of his dis- 
covery in the court of Virginia ? — How was it in the 
case of the corporation? Besides, this second rea- 
son is founded upon a rule to which there are also 



54 ON THE CHANCF.RV POWEUS. 

exceptions ; the reason why exparte testimony shall 
not be admitted, is, that the party against whom it 
is oifered, had no opportunity of cross-examining. 
Suppose it should be made to appear, that, in con- 
sequence of the act of the party, the witness was in- 
duced to withhold his testimony, at a period when 
the party had an opportunity of cross-examining, 
would it not be monstrous if he were permitted to 
avail himself of such a subterfuge ? After having 
prevented the witness from giving testimony, on 
a proper occasion, he complains of the want of op- 
portunity to cross-examine! The bill, I believe, 
sufficiently shows that such was really the fact. 
There is no doubt, but that, in such case, the court 
of chancery in Virginia, would enjoin the party 
from opposing the reading of the discovery in evi- 
dence, although exparte. The court of chancery 
in England, has interfered in similar cases, where 
the testimony was not admissible by the rules of law. 
i Eq. Ca. 73. 

There are further exceptions respecting the ad- 
mission of exparte testimony: depositions may be 
given in evidence, at the suit of a factor. Bull. N. 
P. 237. In the present case, the respondent is a 
broker, who transacted the business between the 
parties, which has given rise to the suit ; according 
to the decisions, he is the agent of each. 2 Esp. 
456. Again, exparte testimony may be received 
to contradict what a witness has sworn in another 



ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 55 

cause. Peak 28, 29. This sufiiciently shows, that 
the testimony of the respondent, is not necessarily 
useless. But, all these objections may be obviated 
by the decree of the chancellor: the respondent 
may be attached to testify, under the commission; 
his fears of our not being able to use his testimony, 
will thus be removed. 

What now becomes of the respondent's demurrer? 
It is founded upon no law, for the reason of failing, 
the law itself ceases to exist. He has attempted to 
shelter himself, therefore, under the mere dead 
letter of the law. He admits the facts set forth in 
our bill, for such is the legal effect of his demurrer ; 
1 Veazy, 427. He admits that we have a right to 
his testimony ; that it is important to us ; that our 
cause cannot safely be tried without it ; that we 
have no other mode of compelling him to give tes- 
timony ; but he is resolved to take advantage of 
what he supposes a defect in the organization of our 
government ; and he refuses to do what is consonant 
to natural right and justice, because there is no 
power to compel him ! 

Upon this very demurrer, then, do I rest my 
claim for the interference of the chancellor. The 
respondent himself furnishes the weapon with which 
we attack him. He admits our right, but denies 
that there is a remedy for us any where. It is for 
that very reason, we seek for it here. 

The presumption of law is in favour of a bill 



56 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

of discovery, because it is founded on natural jus- 
tice ; and it becomes the duty of him who resists, 
to show reasons, to satisfy the court, why the party 
seeking, ought not to obtain it ; either because he 
has no right to such discovery, or because the re- 
spondent may claim some personal exemption. The 
respondent cannot prevail on this demurrer. It is 
not possible that a party can be dismissed from this 
court, (whose very business it is to provide for the 
anomalies of the law,) and be told that his right is 
clear, but remediless here and elsewhere. I cannot 
suppose that, under the dead letter of the law, a 
fellow citizen can excuse himself, from the perform- 
ance of one of the most important duties of social 
life. It is utterly impossible that there should be 
so monstrous a defect in our political system, as to 
leave the citizen in many situations, without the 
ability of coercing the means of defending his liber- 
ty, his life, his property, or reputation. This would 
almost tempt me to be an advocate for arbitrary 
power. But no — the thought is impious. Let me 
rather be a beggar in a republic, than obtain riches 
and honours by supplicating a throne. The senti- 
ment of the poet I always viewed with detestation; 

Nunquam libertas gratior exlai, 



Qiiam sub rege pio 

There may have been a good king ; but the best 
has been surrounded with a haughty crowd of 



ON THE CHANCERY TOWERS. 57 

worthless nobles, the least of whom could be a 
tyrant and an oppressor. The feeble voice of the 
cottage, is not easily heard beneath the canopy of 
the throne. But the animating soul of a republic 
of laws, gives life, and vigour, and importance to 
the humblest member of society. Like nature her- 
self, its seat is no where, while its vivifying influ- 
ence is felt in every part. 

Thus far, I have considered the defendant as a 
mere witness ; but this is by no means clear. If we 
understand by the term, a mere accidental specta- 
tor, or one who casually becomes possessed of facts, 
or even one who is called for the express purpose of 
being a witness, to a deed or will, this would cer- 
tainly not be our case. The defendant to the bill 
is something more ; he is not merely a witness, he 
was the agent of the transaction, respecting which 
the suit has been instituted. I must confess, that 
the law, as to the distinction between a mere wit- 
ness and one who is sufficiently a party to be com- 
pelled to discover, is not yet clearly defined. There 
is undoubtedly a class of cases, in which the witness 
is considered either in the light of an exception to 
the general rule, or as sufficiently a party to be 
joined in a bill of discovery ; " such as agents, auc- 
tioneers, and some others.'^ 3 P. W. 266 — 6 Veazy, 
jr. 7 Veazy, jr. 289. In the case of 7 Veazy, jr. 
the demurrer was allowed, because in that particu- 
lar instance, the party was considered too purely a 
W 



58 ON THE CHANCERY POWERS. 

witness to be joined in a bill of discovery. Proba- 
bly, the true criterion would be the coming within 
the scope of the transaction, at least having some 
important agency in it. The kind of relation, which 
a man bears to the parties, when thus situated, is 
very dijQferent from that of a mere witness. He is 
the agent of both, derives a profit in the business, 
becomes intimately acquainted with facts^and ought 
to act fairly and impartially to each. — 'flie defen- 
dant is a broker ; and as such, transacted the busi- 
ness of the parties ; it is, therefore, his duty to show 
no partiality to either. There is also another point 
of view, in which he may be regarded as a party. 
It is laid down, that an arbitrator who has been 
guilty of impropriety in his award, may be made a 
party, and compelled to discover ; so also a solici- 
tor who assisted his client in a fraud ; in the present 
instance, the broker assisted in a usurious transac- 
tion, in taking advantage of the necessities, in de- 
frauding the plaintiff. It is then by no means clear, 
that the defendant is a mere witness. Cooper, Eq, 
201. 

Thus fortified by reason, justice, and the laws of 
the land, I leave the decision to the chancellor ; 
with perfect confidence, that on whatever side the 
balance may preponderate, it will be the result of 
a wise and equitable judgment. 



SPEECH 

OF 

H. IVI. BRACKENRIDGE, 

DELIVEHED 
IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES OF MARYLAND, 1818, 

ox THE 

JEW BILL..* 



Mr. Speaker, 

Could I, for a moment, suppose it possible for 
the bill on your table, to lessen, in the slightest de- 
gree, by its passage, the attachment we all profess, 
for the religion in which we have been educated ; 

* This speech was published in a pamphlet form by 
the Jews of Baltimore, and widely circulated. The bill 
had been lost, but public attention was awakened to the 
subject, both in Maryland and other states, and the mat- 
ter was afterwards brought before the legislature, at each 
succeeding session. It gained strength, and after a strug- 
gle of six or seven years, prevailed. In Baltimore, it be- 
came a sine qua non of the election of the delegate, to avow 
himself in favour of it. The speeches of Mr, Worthington, 
and of Mr. Tyson, the first in the session of 1824, the 
other in the subsequent session of 1826, are published in 
this volume. I regret that I have not the speech of Mr. 
Kennedy, of Washington, the first mover, and indefatiga- 
ble supporter of the bill. 



/ 



6a SPEECH ON -IMi: JliW BILI-. 

or could I bring myself to believe, that even tliose 
innocent and harmless prejudices, which more or 
less influence the opinions of the most liberal, are 
treated with disrespect by bringing the subject be- 
fore this house, I should be the last person to urge 
it on your consideration. 

But, sir, I feel a firm conviction, that there is 
no room for any such apprehensions. The known 
public and private worth, (if I may be allowed thus 
to express myself in this place,) as well as the firm 
and fixed religious principles of the gentleman^ 
with whom the bill has originated, and who has 
supported it in a manner so becoming the enlighten- 
ed American statesman, and the tolerant Christian, 
must necessarily repel the suspicion of any but the 
most generous, disinterested, and philanthropic mo- 
tives. In the theological view he has just taken 
of this interesting subject, he has most satisfactorily 
proved to my mind, that there is nothing in the re- 
ligious faith which we profess, that enjoins us, to 
hold to the arbitrary test engrafted as a principle 
on the constitution of this state, at this day, when 
it is converted into a stain, by the progressive wis- 
dom of the political world. To the test of that 
wisdom, I will, nevertheless, endeavour to bring 
the question now before the house. I will endeav- 
our to show, that the objectionable provision in 
our constitution, is at variance with all the sound, 
and well established political creed of the present 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 61 

enlightened age. For this, I will refer to the opi- 
nions publicly avowed, and successfully maintained, 
by every distinguished statesman, not only of Ame- 
rica, but throughout the civilized world. In ad- 
dition to this, I will show, that the principles for 
which I this day contend, have received the un- 
equivocal sanction of the most enlightened and 
respectable political bodies of our country. The 
subject, although of a most fruitful nature, properly 
resolves itself into three questions. 1. Have the 
Jews a right to be placed on a footing with other 
citizens? 2. Is there any urgent reason of state 
policy, which requires that they should be made an 
exception? 3. Is there any thing incompatible 
with the respect we owe to the Christian religion, 
in allowing them a participation in civil offices and 
employments? 

In ascending to first principles, (and in examin- 
ing institutions supposed to be founded upon them, 
we must often do so,) I find that we have duties to 
j)erform to our Creator, as well as to society, but 
which are so distinct in their nature, that unless 
their corresponding obligations be clearly under- 
stood, we shall in vain attempt to lay the founda- 
tion of a solid and satisfactory argument. It is un- 
questionably the right of society to compel every 
one who enjoys its protection, to conform to its or- 
dinances and laws. It is its right so to restrain his 
actions^ as to conduce to the general happiness and 



62 SPEECH ON THE JEW lULL. 



prosperity. But I contend, that after having ex- 
ercised this control over his actions, the temporal 
power has reached its limit ; and when it dares to 
pass that limit, it opens the way to oppression, per- 
secution, and cruelty, such as the history of the 
world has furnished but too many melancholy ex- 
amples — not for our imitation, but abhorrence. Opi- 
nion, when merely such, when prompting to no act 
inconsistent with the laws and peace of society, 
should be encountered only by opinion ; and on 
such occasions the interposition of the temporal arm 
is improper, however mildly interposed. For it is 
not the extent, or degree, of compulsion, which 
renders it improper, but the unjust and arbitrary 
interference itself. If, as members of society, we 
have duties whose performance the temporal power 
may justly enforce, we have, as rational beings, 
other duties of a much higher nature, to our Crea- 
tor, of which he is the judge, and to whom, alone, 
should be referred the punishment, or reward, of 
their fulfilment or neglect. Religion, therefore, 
merely as such, is a matter entirely between man 
and his God. If my position, then, be correct, it 
will follow, that it must be left to every citizen, as 
he is to stand or fall by his own merits, or demerits, 
to entertain that belief, or offer that worship, which 
in his conscience he thinks most acceptable ; and 
should any of liis fellow-citizens desire to release 
him from what he conceives to be the bondage of 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 63 

error, let it be by an appeal to the reason, and not 
by a resort to coercion — a coercion which can only 
affect outward actions, and serve to exhibit power 
on the one side, and feebleness on the other. He 
that is thus convinced, will be of the same opinion 
still. The human frame may be bound in chains ; 
it may be imprisoned and enslaved ; it may yield to 
the dagger of the assassin, or the murderer's bowl ; 
but the immortal mind soars beyond the reach of 
earthly violence. Upon the self-evident truths 
which I have spoken, (and on no others can they 
safely rest,) are built the hights of conscience, 
so little understood, or at least respected, in most 
countries, not so well, I confess it with regret, in 
Maryland, as they ought to be, but perfectly so in 
the constitution of the United States ; an instrument 
for which we are indebted as a nation, to the high 
estimation of enlightened men, and which has con- 
ferred on our country, the reputation of being the 
land of freedom and toleration. 

And here, I find it necessary to encounter an 
argument of those gentlemen who oppose the pas- 
sage of the bill ; they tell us, that no /orce, or co- 
ercion, is resorted to by the constitution of Mary- 
land, in consequence of religious faith — that every 
one is secured in his civil rights, no matter what 
religion he may profess — that no one can be molest- 
ed on account of his religious belief — that no one 
has a right to complain of being denied some com- 






64 SPEECH ON THE JEW niM,= 

'A 

mon benefit, or being excluded from liolding oflices, 

when he does not think proper to conform to the 
prevailing religious tenets of the community of which 
he is admitted a member. Sir, I contend, that in 
conformity to the reasons I have advanced, everi/ 
citizen is entitled to all the privileges of citizen- 
ship ; that the religious opinions of no one can be 
justly visited upon him, either directly or indirect- 
ly, as the immediate or remote consequence of that 
opinion. If, on account of my religious faith, I am 
subjected to disqualifications, from which others 
are free, while there is no paramount reason drawn 
from a regard to the safety of society, why I should 
be thus excepted, I cannot but consider myself a 
persecuted man. The persecution may be but 
slight in its character, but still it must bear the de- 
tested name of persecution. It is true, it is not the 
fagot, or the wheel, but it is applied for the same 
reason — becaluse my opinions do not conform to 
those of the more numerous, or more powerful. 

An odious exclusion from any of the benefits 
common to the rest of my fellow-citizens, is a per- 
secution, differing only in degree, but of a nature 
equally unjustifiable with that, whose instruments 
are chains and torture. In our land of equal rights 
and equal pretensions to the dignity and emolument 
of olRce, to be subjected to a degrading exception, 
is by no means a nominal punishment. 

Sir, in the sentiments which I have uttered on 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 65 

this occasion;, I have done nothing more than repeat 
what has already been so often and so much better 
expressed;, by the enlightened statesmen of our 
country. There is hardly a distinguished Ameri- 
can who has not in some mode or other^ given to 
these ideas his decided approbation. They are 
deeply engraven on the tablets of those political 
doctrines which are considered as eternal and immu- 
table. They are among the first lessons inculcated 
on our youthful minds ; they are interwoven in the 
texture of our political constitutions ; and so deeply 
are we impressed with their truth, that every Ame- 
rican who aspires to the character of liberality, as 
well as to a proper knowledge of the spirit of our 
institutions, must subscribe to this proposition, as the 
test of the progress of his attainments — that reli- 
gion IS A RIATTER BETWEEN MAN AND HIS GOD THAT 

THE TEMPORAL ARM SHOULD BE INTERPOSED TO DI- 
RECT THE ACTIONS OF MEN, AND NOT THEIR THOUGHTS. 

I will now take the liberty of reading some pages 
from dilTerent authors of this country, who have 
expressed their ideas in language much more clear 
and impressive. [Here Mr. B. read several pas- 
sages from Mr. Madison's memorial on the test laws 
of Virginia, from judge Tucker's works, and also 
from a number of other writers.] 

Sir, after what I have read, I would ask, whe- 
ther I am not warranted in saying, that a just cri- 
terion might be formed of the degree of proficiency 
9 



66 SPEECH ON THE TEW BILL. 

of any one, in those political doctrines, which so 
justly and peculiarly deserve the name of American, 
by the willingness or unwillingness, with which he 
yields assent to the reasoning contained in those 
papers? The masterly report of Mr. Madison, 
doubtless, in its day had to encounter opposition ; 
it came forth at a moment, when we were just strug- 
gling to free ourselves from the errors of our poli- 
tical education ; it was then regarded as the effort 
of a bold spirit, declaring a daring truth to his coun- 
trymen. And where is the man at this day so rash, 
so mad, as to stand up against it? That truth has 
triumphed over bigotry and prejudice ; it has plant- 
ed its victorious standard on that noble monument, 
the federal constitution — it has prevailed in every 
member of the confederacy, unless the enemy of to- 
leration, driven from every other place of refuge, 
should have found a last entrenchment in the con- 
stitution of Maryland — which God forbid. 

I have hitherto, Mr. Speaker, considered ra- 
ther what ought to be the right of the citizen, than 
what it really is, as guaranteed by the recorded 
monument of his liberties ; for it is our pride, that 
for these, we are not indebted to the charter of a 
sovereign. And here, I do not hesitate to assert, 
that could this question be brought before some tri- 
bunal competent to decide, I would undertake to 
maintain, that the right which this bill professes to 
give, is. already secu7'ed by our national compact; 



SPEECH ON THE JEW HILL. 67 

I would boldly contend, that the state of Maryland 
has deprived, and still continues to deprive, Ame- 
rican citizens of their just political rights. If we 
cannot find it in the express letter of the instru- 
ment, can we hesitate for a moment, in believing, 
that it has at least virtually abrogated every part of 
state laws or constitutions, whose tendency is to in- 
fringe the RIGHTS OF CONSCIENCE? But first, let 
me ask, what says your own declaration of rights on 
this subject? — It emphatically declares, not merely 
that it is the right, but that it is the duty of every 
man to worship God, in such a manner, as he 
thinks most acceptable to him. It is true, this is 
narrowed by the subsequent clause of the sentence, 
which would seem to confine that worship to the 
professoi's of Christianity; and I will not trouble 
you with a vindication of the enlightened men who 
drew up that declaration, from the charge of nar- 
rowness of mind, in supposing it impossible for any 
one, conscientiously to worship God, excepting 
through the medium of Christianity. I firmly be- 
lieve, that the subsequent expressions were intend- 
ed to apply to all who worship the Deity, and that 
it was not the intention to discriminate as to the 
mode ; wherefore, no person ought by any law to 
be molested in his person or estate, on account of 
his religious persuasion or profession, or for his 
religious practice, unless, under colour of religion, 
any man shall disturb the good order, peace, or safe- 



68 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

ty of the state, or shall infringe the laws of mo- 
rality, or injure others in their natural, civil, or 
religious rights. I will ask, whether the religious 
test in the constitution of this state, can stand for a 
moment, when construed by the spirit of this decla- 
ration? No, sir, they are utterly incompatible. 
Let us now turn to the first amendment of the con- 
stitution of the United States ; we find that congress 
is expressly forbidden, to pass any lata respecting 
an establishment of religion. Does not this speak 
volumes? And is it not morally certain, that if a de- 
claration of rights had preceded that instrument, 
the right to worship God free from all human con- 
trol, or reflection, would have been unequivocally 
declared? No test-oath is required in that instru- 
ment ; and can there be a clearer, although but a 
negative exposition ? 

It is true, the constitution of the United States, 
as a form of government, is confined in its operation 
to the specific objects for which it was instituted. 
But there are certain broad and fundamental prin- 
ciples, entitled to universal respect ; and, without 
respecting them, it is impossible for the general 
and state governments to move in harmony in their 
respective orbits. This, I contend, is one of them, 
and not the least important. Let us look at the con- 
sequence of the contrary, in the practical operation. 
The citizen, who cannot hold the most trivial oflice 
in the state of Maryland, may be chosen to preside 



SPEECH ON THE JEW HILL. 69 

over its destinies, as the chief magistrate of the na- 
tion! — He may be called to the command of your 
armies, and lead you to battle against the enemy 
who has dared to invade your shores ; and yet, he 
cannot be an ensign or a lieutenant, of the smallest 
company in the mighty host ! He may sit on the 
bench, and in the federal courts, be called to de- 
cide upon the fortune or the life of the citizen of 
Maryland ; and yet, your constitution forbids him, 
as a justice of the peace, to decide the most trifling 
dispute? He may be juror in the circuit courts of 
the United States, and be the arbiter of the repu- 
tation, the life, or the liberty of the first among 
youj yet, under the laws of Maryland, he cannot 
sit iu the same box, to deal out the measure of jus- 
tice to the pilfering slave ! He may be marshal of the 
district, and in that highly respectable, and respon- 
sible situation, be intrusted with your most impor- 
tant interests, at the same time that he is disqualified 
from performing the duties of a constable ! Can it 
be believed, that such glaring inconsistencies could 
have been foreseen or imagined, when our political 
system was put in motion, attuned, as it was sup- 
posed, to move in unison and harmony? This clash- 
ing discord, of general and state government, could 
not have been foreseen. Still less could it have been 
supposed, that discord would have been produced 
by such a cause. Supported, then, by the spirit of 
the law, and the strong argument of inconvenience, 



70 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

I would contend in behalf of the citizen^, that in re- 
quh'ing him to subscribe to a religious test, for 
any purpose, his just, constitutional rights, are iti- 
fringed and violated. 

Sir, the history of the American colonies, unpol- 
luted with intolerance, as it has been supposed, 
compared to the fruitful narratives of the perse- 
cutions, which deform the annals of Europe, is, after 
all, but comparatively pure. Even in this country, 
the scourge of real persecution has been felt j and 
as in every other, it has done more injury to ge- 
nuine religion, than could ever be effected by its 
avowed enemies. With humility, and mortifica- 
tion, be it spoken, the page of our pure history is 
stained with persecutions, on account of religious 
opinion, although the day has arrived, when, in the 
face of the world, we assume for our country, the 
proud title of the asylum of the persecuted! 
In some of the colonies, it is well known, that de- 
nominations, even of Christians, were persecut- 
ed unto death. The cloudy atmosphere of error 
and prejudice, it is true, had begun to be illumined 
by the blaze of the revolution, and then it was, that 
the framers of our State Constitutions, believed it 
wise, and just, that all sects of Christianity, in every 
part of the union, should enjoy the most perfect 
equality of civil and political rights. And at this 
day, do we discover any great effort of liberality 
in assenting to this self-evident truth? But are we 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 71 

certain that the enlightened men of those days, had 
not stubborn prejudices to encounter? The wisdom 
of nations, like that of individuals, is progressive. 
What is universal error to-day, is disputable to- 
morrow, — and the next, receives the no longer to 
be questioned seal of wisdom. The probability is, 
that they led the way to the salutary reform, and 
triumphed by the force of reason, and the weight 
of their influence. But the reformers of abuses in 
society, have generally been compelled to compro- 
mise with error. Their enlightened minds outrun 
the times and country in which they live. : Hence 
it is, that something was still left to be done by 
our forefathers, at a future and more favourable 
period. Let any one contemplate the rapid ad- 
vancement of statesmen, between the recent epoch 
of our emancipation, and the adoption of the federal 
constitution, when the sages of our land were in- 
trusted by the general voice, with the awful duty 
of framing for a nation of the most elevated destinies, 
a form of government that would secure its peace, 
prosperity and happiness — and he will be ready to 
admit, that our political wisdom had not been sta- 
tionary. An eulogium on the great men who com- 
posed the federal convention, and on the work of 
their hands, would be necessary, for it is written on 
the heart of every American, and next to the gifts 
of Divine Providence, it constitutes his greatest 
blessing. And among the greatest acliievements 



72 SPEECH ON THE. JEW BILL. 

of that work, in my humble estimation, was that of 
putting a finishing hand, to that which they found 
much advanced, it is true, but still incomplete — 
the final separation of force and opinion — the entire 
dissolution of the unnatural union between church 
and state, whose offspring were monsters, born only 
to feed on the vitals of society. The citizen was 
declared responsible only for his actions; for his 
religion, he was left to account to his Creator. 

Independently of the reflections which led to 
this decisive course, as one of abstract and positive 
right, it is to be presumed^ they had in their minds, 
the evils experienced even in our own country, 
from religious persecution, which, previous to the 
revolution, had not unfrequently disturbed the peace 
and good will of the different provinces. For the 
purpose of preventing the recurrence of these evils, 
it was intended to secure to every citizen of the 
union, his personal rights, among the most precious 
of which are those of conscience. I believe, that 
any unbiassed man, who will read the federal con- 
stitution, must perceive, that it does not consist 
merely of articles of confederation, between inde- 
pendent states, but that it is a compact, entered 
into by «//the citizens, with each other, in their in- 
dividual capacity. The federal constitution, there- 
fore, in respect to civil and political rights, holds 
forth a guarantee to all and to each. The rights of 
conscience are unalienable, and imprescriptible; 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 73 

they are not susceptible of being even voluntarily 
surrendered — the only office, therefore, which the 
laws can perform, is to protect, and save them from 
violation. My argument, Mr. Speaker, leads to 
this — that no state government has a right to en- 
croach upon what is thus sacredly guarded, by a 
superior authority. Sir, I do contend that the con- 
stitution of the United States, has guaranteed to 
every American citizen, the right of worshipping 
God in the manner he deems most acceptable, and 
that this right is violated, whenever the citizen is 
made to feel the consequences of his opinions, either 
by direct hodily inflictions, or by disqualifications. 

But, sir, even admitting that I have not been 
able to maintain my position, on the strict ground 
of constitutional right, at least, it must be acknow' 
ledged, that the negative disapprobation of the test 
by that constitution, furnishes a powerful argument 
in favour of its positive rejection from that of Ma- 
ryland. For the sake of decent conformity, for the 
sake of obviating the glaring inconsistencies which 
have been exhibited, if for no other reasons, the 
bill ought to pass. And, I would respectfully ask, 
whether, even on subjects purely abstract, some re- 
spect is not due to the opinions of the enlightened 
statesmen who framed the federal compact? I 
know, sir, that to err, is in the nature of man ; but, 
if I must err, let it be ivith men like these. 

And, let me ask, what is the rational object, which 
10 



74 SPEECH ON rUE JEW BILL. 

this test proposes to accomplish ? Does it propose 
to do that which can be done hy omniscience alonef 
Does it propose to discover the inward thoughts of 
man, to lay open to view the workings of his mind? 
Does it propose to discover who is the Christian, 
and who is not? If such be the object, and I can 
discover no other just or natural one, I will appeal 
to any man of common experience, to say, whether 
he really expects, in this way, to discover the true 
sentiments and opinions of any one? The atheist, 
if there be such, and the deist, will laugh at this 
mode of detecting their errors. They will not hesi- 
tate to subscribe, what they will consider, an idle 
form. The Jew, and the infidel, unless governed, 
the one by his religion, the other by an abstract love 
of truth, can be placed under no constraint by a test, 
which if they abuse, no earthly power can call them 
to account. Is it necessary to the Christian? Is he 
the better Christian for avowing his belief, before he 
can be allowed the enjoyment of a temporal benefit? 
No, sir, to him such a test is useless ; to others, it 
is worse than useless ; it may make hypocrites, and, 
I believe, it requires no great stretch of casuistry to 
say, that the . sin of this hypocrisy must rest upon 
the heads of those who are the authors of the 
temptation. If any one can seriously flatter himself 
that the test can accomplish a rational object, it must 
be as a mode of propagating the faith, among those 
unbelievers, whose love of truth will not allow them 



SPEECH ON TFIE JEW BILL. 



to be guilty of deception. To these it holds out the 
reward of offices and dignities for their conversion; 
or denounces the penalty of partial degradation, 
from the common benefits of citizenship, while they 
persist in their unbelief. Can it be possible, sir, that 
in this enlightened age and country, we have not 
renounced the practice of propagating religion by 
the sword ? Or can it be regarded as any thing else, 
when temporal rewards and punishments are re- 
sorted to, as the means of establishing or maintain- 
ing religious opinions? It is impossible for any one 
seriously to contend, that this was ever in the con- 
templation of the framers of our constitution. The 
very clause in the bill of rights, by which the test 
is supposed to be countenanced, shows the struggle 
in the minds of those men, between their own opi- 
nions, and the necessity of compromising with the 
prejudices of the times. They could not but have 
seen, that having once destroyed the union between 
church and state, to require a religious test for po- 
litical purposes, was worse than absurdity. Even 
English writers acknowledge, that in England the 
test is founded upon this union, and on nothing else. 
It is well known, that in that country, the struggle 
between Catholics and Protestants, was a struggle 
for the government ; the test was therefore resorted 
to, for the purpose of securing political power, and 
not as a mode of ascertaining religious sentiments. 
We have borrowed it, as we have many other things 



y© SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL, 

from that country, without sufficiently examining 
their application to a different state of society and 
manners. And I hope, Mr. Speaker, it will be 
renounced, in the same manner that we have re- 
nounced other things derived from that source, but 
unsuited to our present situation. Let us substitute 
the only real test of the qualifications for public 
office ; that^of public and private worth, character, 
and reputation. 

Let me not be understood, sir, to contend, that 
there may not be sound reason and policy for with- 
holding from certain classes of citizens, or people, 
the rights or benefits of citizens, in their utmost lati- 
tude. The existence of servitude, an evil beyond 
our power to remedy, has given rise to certain ideas 
and policy, which would be useless in us to attempt 
to counteract. On this subject, and that of not 
throwing open to naturalized citizens, the whole 
career of public offices, there are reasons of state 
policy, so fully established by our laws and received 
opinions, that it would be presumptuous in me to 
call them in question. But, I have seen no reason 
of state, nor has any been suggested, why the natu- 
ralized Jew should not be placed on the same foot- 
ing with any other naturalized citizen; or why a 
native Jew should be cast into a lower order, than 
even the naturalized foreigner of any country on 
the globe! Is it because there is something in the 
nature of his race, which necessarily renders the 



SPEECH OK THE JEW BILL, 77 

Jew a less valuable citizen? Then, sir, ought we to 
form a graduated scale for the different nations of 
the world, and regulate the term of their admission, 
or the extent of their privilege, according to the 
merits or demerits of their national character ! And 
would it not, on the same principle, be necessary 
to establish different castes among our own citizens, 
and lay aside that wholesome republican respect for 
individual merit, which has hitherto been our guide ? 
No, sir, such odious discrimination is practically 
impossible. The citizen of Jewish origin, whether 
naturalized or native, ought to be entitled to all the 
rights of citizenship that may be claimed under like 
circumstances by an Englishman, a Frenchman, or 
a Spaniard. 

But, sir, is there really such inferiority in the 
Jewish race or character, which renders it neces- 
sary to inflict on them such a degradation? The 
sacred book on which we ground our faith, teaches 
that they are not an inferior people. Else, where- 
fore should they have been the chosen people of 
God, the favoured depositaries of the sacred law 
and holy prophecies ? Do we forget that to them we 
are not only indebted for these, but even for the 
blessings of Christianity? Its author was a Jew, his 
apostles were Jews. On the contrary, there is every 
reason to believe, that, as a race, they are entitled 
to the first rank among nations. If a portion of this 
race was unwilling, or unable to believe, we are told 



78 srEEcn on thf. jew bill. 

it was permitted by Providence for purposes greater 
than we can comprehend. That their descendants, 
eighteen hundred years afterwards, should still per- 
severe in the belief, or unbelief, of their forefathers, 
we are taught to look upon as a miracle ; but we 
are also taught, that the same people will believe at 
last, and be restored to divine favour. Their na- 
ture then has not changed, although they labour 
under the displeasure of our common Father- That 
displeasure has scattered them over the world, and 
has exposed them to the persecutions of the wicked 
— persecutions, which, it must be confessed, accord- 
ing to the natural tendency of things, has had, in 
many countries, a most unhappy influence on their 
character. And, let me ask, is it to be wondered at, 
when surrounded by the most indignant enemies, 
their remorseless oppressors and persecutors, that 
they should feel indignation and resentment ? Can 
we expect them to exhibit elevation of character, 
when a mark of opprobrium has been set upon them? 
Can we expect to see them display universal bene- 
volence, when they are universally scorned? Can 
we expect to see them engaged in sober and indus- 
trious callings, when they are forbidden to be own- 
ers of the soil, or to exercise the common mechanic 
arts? Can we expect them to love their Gentile 
neighbours and brethren, when the very name is 
used as a by- word— when those neighbours and bre- 
thren teach their children to scoff evefti at their mis- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 79 

fortunes ? If the Jew be such as his enemies repre- 
sent him, it is their cruelties which have made 
liim so. That this should be, I own, is the will of 
heaven ; but before we take part in the persecu- 
tion, let us solemnly pause, and recollect, that when 
God afflicts his children, the instruments of his 

WRATH ARE OFTEN HIS ENEMIES ALSO. 

If there is nothing in the Jewish race, is there 
any thing in the Jewish religious doctrines, which 
necessarily disqualifies the Jew from discharging the 
duties, and fulfilling all the obligations of a citizen 
of Maryland ? Sir, I do boldly maintain that there 
is not. If there be such, I call upon the gentlemen 
who have risen in opposition to the bill, to point it 
out. I should be the last to deny, that a belief in 
a future state of rewards and punishments, is the 
sheet-anchor of all .civilized governments. And 
has the Jew no religion to enforce the performance 
of his moral duties, by sanctions beyond the grave ? 
Yes, sir, he has. He worships the same God that 
we do— -the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 
The same law which was given to him, we profess 
to obey-— and excepting that law, which was from 
the beginning imprinted on the conscience by our 
Creator, for thousands of years, the chosen people 
had no other. We are taught, as Christians, that 
the whole of the sacred volume must stand or fall 
together, and consequently that the religion of the 
Jew, so far as he believes, is a part of ours. We 



80 SPEECH ON THE JEW DILL. 

are, however, taught that the author of our religion 
came not to govern the earth, but to unbar for us 
the gates of heaven. Can the Jew be said to have 
no religion which renders him accountable hereaf- 
ter? He has. In his youth he is taught the same 
precepts for the government of his life that we are ; 
in his infancy he learns to lisp the same prayer of 
universal benevolence, and morality, that the Chris- 
tian mother teaches her child. He believes in the 
coming of a Messiah, with great power and glory, 
to judge the earth; this is our belief also. On that 
day we shall all be Christians. The ultimate con- 
version of the Jews is a part of our belief: why then 
this intolerant and persecuting spirit ? Are we ap- 
prehensive that there will be a scarcity of persecu- 
tors ? Are we apprehensive, that in ceasing to be 
persecuted, and therefore ceasing to be a peculiar 
people, the Jews will no longer be the living mira- 
cle, now exhibited to our eyes ? Then the will of 
heaven shall have been fulfilled. It is with reluc- 
tance, sir, I have pursued this train of thought. It 
is my .wish to steer clear of any thing like theologi- 
cal discussion, and to consider the present question 
as purely political. 

Were it necessary for the support of this bill, I 
would undertake to vindicate the Jewish character 
from its commonly imputed vices and defects. But 
the question before the house, has nothing to do 
with these considerations. I will ask those Chris-. 



SPEECH ON' THE JEV/ BILL. 81 

lians who now hear me, candidly and dispassionately 
to examine their own minds, and to say how much 
of their opinions on the subject of the Jewish cha- 
racter, is the offspring of prejudice? Most of us 
have been taught from earliest infancy to look upon 
them as a depraved and wicked people. The books 
put into our hands, and even the immortal Shak- 
speare himself, have contributed to fix in our minds 
this unchristian hatred to a portion of our fellow 
men. It is true, we have witnessed some honour- 
able exceptions; a modern character, (I rejoice to 
say it for the honour of Christendom,) ventured to 
be their advocate, and what is more, with success. 
We have seen, sir, that, in the same country, in pro- 
portion as science and civilization have advanced, 
the condition of the Jew has improved, while his 
moral character has as uniformly risen to the level 
of that condition. Will any one seriously compare 
the Jews of England, of the present day, with the 
same people a few centuries ago, when degraded 
and oppressed by the British kings? Will the Jews 
of Portugal or Turkey, bear a comparison with 
those of the more liberal governments of Europe? 
To come nearer home, I will ask whether the Ame- 
rican Jew is distinguished by those characteristics 
so invidiously ascribed to his race, by its enemies? 
Sir, I have had the honour of being acquainted with 
a number of American Jews, and do not hesitate to 
say, that I have found at least an equal proportion 
IX 



82 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

of estimable individuals^ to that which might be 
expected in any other class of men. None, sir, 
appeared to me/more zealously attached to the in- 
terests and happiness of our common country ; the 
more so, as it is the only one on earth, they can call 
by that endearing name. None have more gallantly 
espoused its cause, both in the late and revolu- 
tionary war; none feel a livelier sense of gratitude 
and affection for the mild and liberal institutions of 
this country, which not only allow them, publicly 
and freely, the enjoyment and exercise of their re- 
ligion, but also, with the exception of the state of 
Maryland, have done away all those odious civil and 
political decriminations, by which they are else- 
where thrown into an inferior and degraded caste. 
In the city which I have the honour to represent, 
there are Jewish families, which, in point of estima- 
tion and worth, stand in the first rank of respecta- 
bility—who are scarcely remarked as differing from 
their Christian brethren in their religious tenets, 
and whose children are educated in the same schools 
with our youth, and, like them, glory in being 
AMERICANS AND FREEMEN. Havc wc hithcrto had 
any cause to repent of our liberality — rather of 
our justice? Sir, I abhor intolerance, whether it 
he political or religious ; and yet, I can scarcely 
regard religious tolerance as a virtue. What! has 
weak and erring man, a right to give permission 
to his fellow mortal, to offer his adorations to the 



SPEECH ON THK JEW BILL. 83 

Supreme Being, after his own manner? Did I not 
feel myself somehow restrained from pursuing this 
subject; I would endeavour to demonstrate, that the 
idea of such a permission, or toleration, is no better 
than impiety. But I content myself, with calling 
your attention to v/hat has been the effect, in this 
country, at least, of leaving religion to be taught 
from the pulpit, or to be instilled by early educa- 
tion. Is there, let me ask, less genuine Christianity 
in America than in any other Christian country? 
For, if the interference of government be necessary 
to uphold it, such ought to be the natural conse- 
quence. Certainly we are not disposed to confess 
an inferiority in this particular- --Sir, I believe there 
is MORE. And I am well convinced, that if the suc- 
cess of true religion, were the only end in view, 
other nations would follow our example of univer- 
sal toleration. I believe, that in no countries, are 
there more atheists and deists, than in those where 
but one mode of worship is sanctioned, or permitted. 
In my opinion, it is the natural inclination of man, 
to seek support and refuge in religious feelings ; 
and if he find a religion which his judgment ap- 
proves, or to which his affections attach him, he 
will cling to it, as his brightest hope. The man 
who cannot subscribe to all the doctrines and dis- 
cipline of Catholicism, may still be a protestant-- 
the protestant may be a churchman, a presbyterian, 
a friend, or a methodist. But the inquisition allows 



84 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

him no choice ; he must either embrace that which 
is tendered him, or be nothing. No, sir, it does 
not enter into the duties of this body, to guard 
and preserve the religious faith of Maryland, from 
schism, and innovation ; otherwise, we have been 
grossly remiss in the performance of that duty. I 
do not recollect a single statute, or resolution, on 
the records of this house, for this purpose. Sir, the 
propagation of error, has never been prevented by 
force ; but force has sometimes given permanence, 
to what would otherwise have been ephemeral. 

Were we about to attempt the conversion of the 
Jews to Christianity, the true mode, in my opinion, 
would be, to treat them with kindness, and to allow 
them a full participation of political and social rights. 
When men are proscribed for their opinions, those 
opinions become dear to them ; like the traveller in 
the storm, they draw the mantle closer about them, 
but on the return of the warm and genial sun, they 
cast it carelessly away. 

Some reasons have been urged against the passage 
of this bill, whose force, I must own, I can scarcely 
comprehend. We are told, that it will hold out in- 
ducements to the Jews, to migrate to this country 
from abroad? Without stopping to inquire into the 
nature of this supposed evil, I will simply reply, 
that the inducement already exists. If it can seri- 
ously be supposed, that the prospect of obtaining 
oMces would invite the Jews to this country, in such 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL, 85 

numbers as to endanger its safety, I would ask 
whether that invitation has not been already given 
by the constitution of the union, as well as those of 
the neighbouring states? On the other hand, it has 
been objected, that the number of Jews is too incon- 
siderable to call for an alteration of the constitution 
on their account. I shall not attempt to show how 
far these two propositions can be reconciled ; but, 
sir, in relation to the latter, I entertain a very dif- 
ferent opinion. The nature of the injustice is not 
changed by the greatness or smallness of the num- 
ber of those who suffer. If but one American 
citizen be deprived of the least of his just consti- 
tutional rights, or feel the hand of tyranny and op- 
pression, and it be in our power to afford him 
redress, it is our sacred duty to interpose. If we 
leave him to his fate, we break down the barrier 
which gives security to ourselves, and by indiffe- 
rence to the violation of his rights, we invite the 
tyrant to trample on our own. 

It has been asserted and repeated, that there is 
no intolerance in withholding from the Jews the 
common privileges of citizenship. It is asked, are 
they not protected in the free exercise of their re- 
ligion ? Are they not permitted to hold property, 
and tf> pursue the occupations most agreeable to 
them, with one only exception, that of the legal 
profession, which requires them to sign the test? 
Are they not permitted to vote at elections, and 



86 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

thus to have a voice in the formation of the laws? 
I own, sir, that this is true ; but why allow them 
even these privileges? It is the principle against 
which I contend, and not the extent of the injustice. 
Suppose the Jews were allowed one privilege less 
than they at present enjoy ; for instance, the right to 
vote at elections, (and now, for the first time, it was 
sought to be given them,) would not the same argu- 
ments be urged in opposition to that just request, 
that we have heard this day, against placing them 
entirely on a footing with their fellow citizens? To 
go further, let us suppose them on a footing with 
the Jews of England, and an attempt were now 
made to extend to them some trivial privilege of 
citizenship, would not the same arguments still be 
urged against it? Pursuing this train of thought, 
to what result would it conduct us? Sir, it would 
end in consigning the Jews to the dungeons of the 
inquisition. The self-same arguments that have 
been arrayed this day against the passage of the bill 
on your table, have been heard from the lips of 
those who were engaged in preparing the rack, the 
chains, the fires, for the persecuted Jew. Such ar- 
guments are unworthy of free Americans, and ought 
to be abhorred, if for no other reason, that they are 
the constant theme of such as perpetrate the tnost 
horrid crimes in the name of religion — of those, to 
use the words of a celebrated orator, ivhose banner 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL* 87 

is stolen from the altar of God, and whose forces 
are congregated from the abysses of helL 

Even the illiberality of other nations, should af- 
ford us a lesson. In countries which groan under 
the tyranny of the inquisition, the stranger who 
professes Protestant Christianity, is held in no high- 
er estimation than the Jew — is even designated by 
that very name ; and there is but little doubt, that 
his only safety depends on the protecting arm of his 
country ; without this, he would be treated with the 
same cruelty and opprobrium, as the outcast Jew ! 
As far as epithets will go, the heretic is not more re- 
spected than his unfortunate companion. This is 
not the spirit of Christianity. If man errs in his be- 
lief, is there no judge ? There is ; but that judge 
has emphatically declared to man, ^^judge not, lest 
you be judged.^' Far be it from me, to express the 
remotest disrespect, of any Christian denomination, 
I speak of what I conceive to be the abuses of that 
admirable system ; and those abuses have rarely fail- 
ed to be practised, whenever there is an exclusive 
religion maintained by coercion of any kind. If 
we look abroad, and even glance around on our own 
country, we shall find, that the practice of perse- 
cution, and the "spirit of intolerance, are not the 
inseparable attendants on Catholicism ; nor does his- 
tory prove that American Protestants cannot be 
intolerant. 

It has been said, and I own I heard it with some 



63 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

surprise, that the evil proposed to be remedied by 
this bill, is of a naturepiirely abstract, and accom- 
panied by no real and serious grievance. It is true, 
sir, that there has been no deputation from the 
people called Jews, to solicit in person, or to make 
known to you their feelings and wishes in relation 
to this matter. Far from this circumstance being 
construed to their disadvantage, there is a delicacy 
in thus declining to weary you with importunity, 
which deserves to be admired. But can any one 
for a moment suppose, that any native American 
citizen, whatever may be his religion, is insensible 
to the privation of liberties and privileges, so high- 
ly prized by all his fellow-citizens? Is it possible 
for him to be insensible to the indignity of being set 
apart, as belonging to a caste unworthy of a full par- 
ticipation of civil and political rights? No, sir, 
although the Jews are silent on this occasion, they 
are not insensible, I will say more — they look to 
the decision of this house with the deepest interest, 
as to one which may restore them to that rank under 
the spirit of the bill of rights, and the constitution, 
which they have never forfeited, and to which 
they have a just claim, in reason and sound policy, 
as well as by the paramount princfple of the federal 
compact. It is but a few days since I read in one 
of the newspapers of Baltimore, an accoinit of a pub- 
lic examination, at the principal seminary of learn- 
ing at that place. To the son of a Jew, a youth but 



SPEECH ON THE JEW HILL. 89 

little turned of twelve years of age, was awarded 
the first prize in every branch of education ; and 
to crown all, he was declared to have surpassed his 
companions in good conduct and morality, as he had 
in the superior endowments of his mind. I own, I 
feel a mortification, when I reflect, that the talents, 
learning, and meritorious deportment of this youth, 
can lead him to none of the offices or honouro of his 
native state. That he cannot apply himself to the 
study of the law, or aspire to a rank in the volun- 
teer company in which he may have signalized his 
valour. Is it possible, let me ask, for this youth, 
or his parents, to feel no mortification at a distinc- 
tion so invidious ? Those enlightened foreigners, 
who have been in the habit of praising the liberality 
of our institutions, will with difiiculty give credit 
to the fact I have related. The feeling I have for 
the honour of my country, for the character of Ma- 
ryland, is a much more powerful motive with me, 
in voting for the bill, than a sense of what is due to 
the Jews, however strong that sense may be. I feel 
mortified tliat any one can say, that the government 
of a community of which I am a member, possesses 
the power or inclination to exercise a control over 
opinion, whether that opinion be political or reli- 
gious. Nothing has so great a tendency to elevate 
our character among the wise men of foreign coun- 
tries, as our supposed exemption from all intolerance. 
Our neighbouring states deserve this praise — and so 
12 



90 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

inseparably did I suppose the principle of toleration 
connected with our political institutions, that when 
Maryland was first mentioned to me as an excep- 
tion, it excited my astonishment. I hope for the 
honour of the United States, and of the state of 
Maryland, the hill on your table will pass. 

I call upon any gentleman to produce the dictum 
or opinion, of an American statesman of note or 
celebrity, in favour of a religious test for political 
purposes ; or the example of any state of the union, 
which withholds f^om American citizens of Jew- 
ish origin, all eligibility to office. In one of the 
states, (Massachusetts,) we find something like a 
test, but confined to a few of the higher offices ; but 
I entertain no doubt that it will be done away in 
that enlightened republic, whenever it shall be pro- 
posed. From every state constitution formed since 
that of the United States, the test has been reject- 
ed---and some of them have gone so far as to say 
that none shall ever be required. In the state of 
North Carolina, there is a memorable instance on 
record, of an attempt to expel Mr. Henry, a Jew, 
from the legislative body, of which he. had been 
elected a member. The speech delivered on that 
occasion I hold in my hand ; it is published in a 
collection, called the American Orator ; a book 
given to your children at school, and containing 
those republican truths, you wish to see earliest 
implanted in their minds. I will take the liberty 



SPEECH ON THE JEAV BILL. 9 1 

of reading some passages from it. [Here Mr. B. 
read a part of the speech.] Mr. Henry prevailed, 
and it is a part of our education, as Americans, to 
love and cherish the sentiments uttered by him on 
that occasion. 

In turning over the pages of the same book, I 
find at least ten speeches on the subject of religious 
toleration, from the most celebrated orators of Great 
Britain. The names of Chatham, Fox, Sheridan, 
Grattan, Erskine, are here recorded as the cham- 
pions of universal toleration. As the generous advo- 
cates of the Catholic and the dissenter, they speak 
'^ in words that burn and thoughts that breathe"— 
they denounce with the irresistible energy of truth, 
the unnatural union of church and state, and the 
interference of earthly power in matters of religion. 
Why put this book into the hands of your children, 
if it be not to instil into their minds, the sentiments 
that American citizens ought to entertain ? And 
where is the distinction between the struggle of the 
Catholic and the dissenter, for the liberty of con- 
science in England, in which we all sympathize, 
and the eifort now making in favour of the perse- 
cuted Jews? Is not the proscription equally un- 
justifiable? Do they not both claim the same right, 
that of ofl'ering their worship to the Deity, free from 
all animadversion of the temporal government? 
The case is the same — it cannot be distinguished. 

Some remarks have fallen from gentlemen, that,. 



92 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

in my mind, go further to discredit the opposition 
to the bill than any thing that can be urged by its 
supporters. It was, indeed, with surprise, I heard 
it seriously asserted, that if this bill passed, we 
should shortly have Chinese or Turks in office, that 
we shall have the processions of Juggernaut crush- 
ing to death its victims in our high-ways ! I cannot 
suppose that gentlemen were serious in these ideas. 
I contend for the freedom of thinking, and not for 
the liberty of acting, as we may think proper ; and 
if Juggernaut should happen to come among us, and 
attempt to disturb the peace of our towns, I should 
be the first to hand him over to the constable. So 
long as my actions neither contravene the laws, or 
disturb my neighbour, no one has a right to molest 
me. This is the right I desire as an American citi- 
zen ; and I proclaim it persecution when any one 
forcibly interrupts the free enjoyment of my opi- 
nion in matters of religion, politics or science, pro- 
vided they lead me to do no act which insults my 
neighbour, or violates the laws of the land. Where 
the matter is a mere difference of opinion, I hold 

MY RIGHT UNQUESTIONABLE, TO DIFFER FROM ANY 
OTHER MAN, OR FROM ALL MANKIND, BE THE SUBJECT 
WHAT IT MAY. 

Is any gentleman really afraid that Chinese or 
Turks may be elected to offices of honour or profit 
in this state ? I see no reason why they should not 
be, if the people think them deserving of their con- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 



fidence. But is the danger really so" great, as to 
require them to be excluded by constitutional pro- 
vision ? I never saw but two Chinese in the United 
States, and they were the servants of an eminent 
merchant in New York, and one Turk, who exhi- 
bited as a juggler. But the irresponsible infidel 
may be allowed to hold oJSice, if the test be repeal- 
ed ! If the term infidel be applied to those indi- 
viduals among us who deny the sacred scriptures 
altogether, I assert that no religious test can have 
any effect upon them. As to them, the only test is 
a knowledge of their opinions, character, and habits 
of life, among their fellow-citizens. The religious 
test places it in their power to acquit or condemn 
themselves as they may think proper ; there can, 
therefore, be no greater absurdity than to subject 
them to such a trial. Nay, its effects would be 
worse ; for suppose the case of one whose misfortune 
it might be to disbelieve, yet of known honour and 
integrity, perhaps unconsciously di practical Chris- 
tian, and such, it must be admitted, there are — 
such a man, abhorring a falsehood, will, of course, 
decline the test; and if any one should deny this to 
be an evil, I might not be disposed to dispute the 
point — yet, is there any one who will not concur 
with me in disapproving, in the strongest terms, the 
possibility of the rea/ infidel, the man who has nei- 
ther regard to honour or religion, deriving every 
benefit of ofiice, from his willingness to take up a 



94 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

convenient mask? Will he hesitate to subscribe to 
the test, if any thing is to be obtained by it? Such 
is the character of this test, which excludes the 
man of truth arid integrity, and admits the unprin- 
cipled knave ! If a witness swear falsely as to fact, 
his testimony can be disproved by other witnesses ; 
but, in this instance, it is only omniscience which 
can convict him. If accused of having acted falsely, 
or in contradiction to sentiments expressed on other 
occasions — he can say, that conviction has reached 
his mind, or that it has been shaken ; and who is to 
determine the truth or falsehood of that which is 
necessarily confined to his own breast ? The test I 
consider as utterly useless for any temporal pur- 
pose. If the term infidel be applied to the uncon- 
verted aborigines of this country, I must again 
reply, that there is not the remotest probability of 
the test acting upon them in any way. But, sir, 
the bill on the table is confined to the Jews, and is 
intended specifically for their benefit ; it is not in- 
tended for the infidel, Turk, or Chinese ; and surely 
the Jewish religion is not to be placed on a footing 
with barbarous superstitions. It hast been impress- 
ed on my mind, that the Jewish religion is divine ; 
that we should believe in the books of the Old Tes- 
tament as well as they, although we believe also in 
those of the New. We concur in the belief of that 
which constitutes the base and foundation of Chris- 
tianity — take away that foundation, and where is the 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 95 

superstructure ? And why should we be displeased 
with them, because they think proper to continue 
their abode in the darker apartments below, while 
we have ascended to the higher parts of the dwell- 
ing, and breathe a freer air, and are surrounded by 
a clearer light? The provisions of the bill, I con- 
fess, are not exactly what I would wish them to be— 
they do not go far enough— -instead of providing 
merely for the case of the Jews, I could wish the 
test entirely expunged from the constitution. 

I am sensible that I have trespassed much on the 
patience of this house, on a subject in which the 
reputation of this state is more deeply involved than 
its interests; it is one which seems to be remote from 
the ordinary business of legislation'; but I feel for 
the character of those whom I represent, as I feel 
for my own ; and the character of justice, and a pro- 
per regard for the rights of my fellow citizens, is 
far dearer to me than any consideration of interest; 
and I see no reason why the state in its represented 
assemblage, should not be actuated by those motives, 
which are regarded as generous, and noble, when 
they influence individual actions. 

There is but one remaining objection to the pas- 
sage of the bill, and this I will endeavour also to 
meet, and yet, it is not without reluctance. It has 
been repeated, that the passage of the bill, is in- 
compatible with the respect we owe to the Chris- 
tian religion ; that this is a Chrisiian land — that the 



96 SPEECH ON THE JEAV BILL. 

Christian religion ought here to be, at least, legally 
avowed, and acknowledged ; and that the respect 
which is due to that institution, may be weakened 
by abolishing the test. Sir, I can see no disrespect, 
offered to any system of religion, where the govern- 
ment simply declares, that every man may enjoy 
his own, provided he discharges his social duties; 
and that the only support of religion, should be de- 
rived from the zeal, affection and faith of those who 
profess it. Sir, I do firmly believe that it is an 
insult to the Christian religion, to suppose, that it 
needs the temporal arm for its support. It has 
flourished in despite of temporal power— -by the 
interference of temporal power in its behalf, has its 
progress ever been retarded, or its principles per- 
verted. 

But, we are told, that this is a Christian land, 
and that we are Christians ! I rejoice to hear it, 
and I hope we will prove ourselves worthy of the 
name, by acting on this, and on every other occa- 
sion, with Christian spirit. The great author of 
that sublime religion, teaches us charity and for- 
bearance, to the errors and failings of our fellow 
men. To his followers, he promised no worldly 
benefits, but crowns of glory in heaven ; for he em- 
phatically declared, that his kingdom was not of 
this world. Far from inculcating unkindness and 
resentment, to those of the Jews who did not be- 
lieve in him, he even forgave those among them, 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 97 

who were his persecutors, and enemies. Do we 
find any injunction bequeathed to his followers, to 
l)ursue those enemies with vengeance? No---his 
last words was a prayer for their forgiveness ; and 
shall we dare to punish where he has been pleased 
to forgive? 

But this is a Christian land! And let me in- 
quire of the page of history, by what means it be- 
came so ? Was it through the instrumentality of 
peace and good will to our fellow men ? Perhaps 
we may say with a clear conscience, that we violat- 
ed no principle of justice, or Christianity, in our 
dealings with the poor heathen, whom we found in 
possession of the soil. But if there is a beam in 
our own eye, at least we can see the mote in the eye 
of our Christian brethren of the south. Let us cast 
a glance towards the bloody Christian conquests of 
Cortes and Pizarro---they are now Christian lands, 
and by what means did they become so? I can 
fancy to myself the wretched Guatimozin, stretched 
on burning coals, his only crime that of heing sus- 
pected of imrevealed treasw^es, and I hear him re- 
buke his less patient companion in misery, by the 
simple, but heroic question. Am Ion a bed of roses? 
Who was the Christian on that occasion? No, sir, 
the soil we inhabit yields its fruit to the just and 
to the unjust; the sun which gives us life, sheds his 
glorious beams impartially on all. But the great 
majority of the dwellers in this land are Christians; 
13 



98 SPEECH ON THE JEW UlLL. 

therefore is it a Christian land! For the same 
reason J it might be a catholic, episcopal, or presby- 
terian land. Our political compacts are not entered 
into as brethren of the Christian faith— but as men, 
as members of a civilized society. In looking back 
to our struggle for independence, I find that we 
engaged in that bloody conflict, for the rights of 
MAN, and not for the purpose of enforcing or de- 
fending any particular religious creed. If the ac- 
cidental circumstance, of our being for the greater 
part Christians, could justify us in proscribing other 
religions, the same reason would justify any one of 
the sects of Christianity, in persecuting the rest= 
But, sir, all persecution for the sake of opinion, is 
tyranny-— and the first speck of it that may appear, 
should be eradicated, as the commencement of a 
deadly gangrene, whose ultimate tendency, is, to 
convert the body politic, into a corrupt and putrid 
mass. 

Mr. Speaker, if I were required to assign a rea- 
son, why, in the course of events, it was permitted 
by Providence, that this continent should have be- 
come known to Europe, the first, and most striking, 
according to my understanding, would be, that it 
ivas the ivill of heaven to open here^ an asylum to 

THE PERSECUTED OF EVERY NATION! We are 

placed here to officiate in that magnificent temple ; 
to us is assigned the noble task of stretching forth 
the hand of charity, to all those unfortunate men, 



SPEECH ON THE JEW DILL. 99 

whom the political tempests of the world may have 
cast upon our shores. We, as Americans, should 
feel a generous exultation, when we behold even 
the Jew, to whom the rest of the world is dark 
and cheerless, overjoyed to find a home in this 
Chi^istian land, in finding here, one sunny spot at 
last! In perusing an elegant pamphlet, from the 
pen of an American Jew, and lately published in 
New York, I felt proud to find myself the citizen 
of a republic, whose benevolent conduct deserved 
such an eulogium. ^^ Let us turn, then," says he, 
^^from Europe, and her errors of opinion, on points 
of faith, to contemplate a more noble prospect — our 
COUNTRY, the bright example of universal tole- 
rance, of liberality, true religion, and good faith. 
In the formation and arrangement of our civil code, 
the sages and patriots, whose collected wisdom 
adopted them, closed the doors upon that great evil, 
which has shaken the world to its centre. They 
proclaimed freedom of conscience, and left the er- 
rors of the heart to be judged at that tribunal, whose 
rights should never have been usurped. Here no 
inquiry of privileges, no asperity of opinion, no in- 
vidious distinctions, exist; dignity is blended with 
equality; justice administered impartially; merit 
alone has a fixed value, and each man is stimulated 
by the same laudable ambition — an ambition of do- 
ing his duty, and meriting the good will of his fel- 
low men. Until the Jews can recover their ancient 



loo SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 



rights and dominions, and take their rank among 
the governments of the earth, this is their chosen 
country; here they can rest with the persecuted 
from every clime, secure in their persons and pro- 
perty, protected from tyranny and oppression, and 
participating of equal rights and immunities." 

Sir, I have done. I trust I have satisfied every 
member of this house, of the justice of the positions 
I have undertaken to maintain. I hope we shall 
no longer persevere in withholding from the Jews, 
privileges to which they are constitutionally enti- 
tled, and which are not controlled by any paramount 
reason of state policy, arising from a regard to our 
own safety and welfare. We surely run into no 
danger, by following the example of the enlighten- 
ed framers of the federal compact, with the great 
Washington at their head. Let us boldly, then, 
adopt that course, the only one which can steer clear 
df error and inconsistency, and enable us to square 
our conduct by the immutable rules of justice. Let 
tis sever at once, and for ever, the unnatural union 
between force and opinion — between temporal pow- 
er and religious faith. Let us give unto Cesar, 

THOSE things THAT ARE CeSAR'S, AND UNTO GoD, 

those things that are God's. 



SPEECH 

OK 

COL.. J. W. D. WORTHINGTON, 

DELIVERED 

IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES OF MARYLAND, 1824, 

ON THE 

JEW BILL. 



Mr. Speaker, 

On a subject of this high importance, I feel a deep 
solicitude. It seizes on the feelings and anxiety of 
the old and the young, suspends the light pursuits of 
the gay and the thoughtful, become doubly atten- 
tive on this momentous question. See what an ex- 
traordinary concourse from all quarters, of all ages 
and sexes, this discussion to-day has attracted to 
your house ! — every lobby, aisle and avenue, crowd- 
ed almost to suffocation ! 

This is a spectacle which no other nation on the 
earth, on an occasion like this, (the dispassionate 
discussion of a political question, though not en- 
tirely abstract, yet least complained of by those who 
1x)th theoretically and practically are affected by it) 



i02 SPEECH ox THE JEW DILL. 

<3an exhibit, unless a discoloured and inflamed re- 
semblance to it may be occasionally found amongst 
some of the high-minded nobles and honest yeo- 
manry of the kingdom of Great Britain. No where 
else on this hapless political sphere, than within the 
limits of our union, need the patriot or philanthro- 
pist look for the realization of the scene now be- 
fore our eyes ! 

I shall treat this subject with great gravity, and 
endeavour, by matters of fact, unquestionable cal- 
culations, and plain but honest reasoning, to con- 
vince this honourable house of their duty and ne- 
cessity in passing this Confirmatory Act. I shall 
deal in no ingenious hypothesis, no wild speculations! 
And though ^"^ bright- eyed fancy hover o'er," I 
shall restrain even a look towards these flowery 
fields, where, in the fairy morning of life, it so 
much delighted me to roam. 

I shall divide my subject into two parts, by lay- 
ing down two propositions : 

1st. This disqualification is against the spirit of 
our constitution, and the letter of that of the United 
States, and against the genius and character of the 
governments of our state and union, and the age in 
which we live. 

2nd. It is against the policy of our country. 

Sir, — The whole scope of the declaration of 
rights, and the constitution of Maryland, go to pro- 
mulgate and establish our unrestrained and liberal 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 103 

form of government. It exists only in this charac- 
ter, and breathes only this spirit-— so that this re- 
ligious restriction seems to be an alien and disjointed 
member of that compact— an intruder, an inter- 
polator. Upon a fair and liberal construction, even 
in ordinary concerns, this repugnant condition 
would be controlled and merged in the clear and 
unequivocaHntention of the whole instrument. It 
is superfluous to refer to any particular clause or sec- 
tion. It must be recollected too, that this basis of our 
state rights was framed at so early a period as August, 
'76, when something of monarchical and colonial 
prejudice, and narrow-mindedness, still hung about 
us---passing upwards, from dependence to freedom I 
So, the soul, as it is quitting its earthly tenement, 
may have some mortal particles hanging about it, 
till aspiring aloft, those grosser elements fall to the 
ground as she reaches her pure and incorruptible 
abode ! 

Not so with the constitution of the union-— that 
was framed many years after, when we had passed 
from colonial misgovernment through the fiery or- 
deal of a long revolutionary war---had reposed af- 
ter its termination under a confederation, and then, 
in a manner defecated and tranquil ; the sacred 
charter, the constitution of the United States, was 
elaborated into being. There, we have a right to 
look for, and there we see, this wily enemy to equal 
rights could find no habitation nor resting place j 



104 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

the gates and the walls were too well watched, and 
his crippled wing could not now lift him from the 
earth to soar above those impassable barriers. JVo 
religious test stands in high relief over the very- 
portals of the temple, and intolerance falls broken 
and prostrate at the sight ! This was no hasty prin- 
ciple engrafted in the constitution- --it grew out of 
the plighted faith of the patriots and heroes of the 
revolution, and the wishes of the states after the 
dissolution of the confederacy. I will, with very 
few comments, read from this old and venerable 
edition of the proceedings of the Revolutionary Con- 
gress, express authorities to substantiate my asser- 
tion. 

JOURNALS OF CONGRESS. 

Address to the inhabitants of Quebec — vol. i. p. 60. 
*' We are too well acquainted with the liberality of sen- 
timent distinguishing^ your nation, to imagine that diffe- 
rence of religion will prejudice you against a hearty amity 
with us. You know that the transcendent nature of free- 
dom elevates those who unite iu her cause above all such 
low-minded infirmities," 8cc. 

Address to the oppressed inhabitants of Canada — vol. i. p. 101. 

"Nay, the enjoyment of your very religion, in the pre- 
sent system, depends on a legislature in which you have 
no share, 9.nd over which you have no control," See. Sec. 

To encourage foreigners to quit the British service — vol. ii. p. 292. 
"Whereas, it has been the wise policy of these states 
to extend the protection of their laws to all those who set- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 105 

lie among them^ of whatever nation or religion they may 
be, and to admit them to a participation of the benefits of 
eivil and religious freedom: and the benevolence of this 
practice, as well as its salutary effects, have rendered it 
worthy of being continued in future times^" Sec. 

New Jersey representation on the articles of confederation, vol. iv. 

p. 269. 
"In the fifth article, where, among other things, the 
qualifications of the delegates from the several states are 
described, there is no mention of any oath, test, or decla- 
ration, to be taken or made by them, previous to their 
admission to seats in congress. It is indeed to be pre- 
sumed, the respective states will be careful that the dele- 
gates they send to assist in managing the general interests 
of the union, take the oaths to the government from which 
they derive their authority;" — further — "we are of opi- 
nion, that some test or obligation is necessary." 

The Constitution, as passed Sept. 2Sth, 1787— vol. XII. p. 107. 
" No Religious Test shall ever be required to any office 
or public trust under the United States." 

May 12th, 1788. Vol. XIT. p. 171. The Convention of South Carolina 
wished the following amendment, but it was refused. 
" Resolved, that the 3d Sec. of the 6th Article ought to 
be amended, by inserting the word ^^ other," between the 
words ^^ no" and ^^ religious." 

Vol. XIII. p. 172. The New Hampshire Convention remonstrated, that 
" Congress shall make no laws touching religion, or to 
infringe the rights of conscience. " 

Convention of Virginia— vol. XIII. p. 176. On 27th June, 1788, pro- 
nounced that 
" All men have an equal, unalienable, and natural right 
14 



106 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

to free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of 
conscience^ and that no particular religious sect or socie- 
ty ought to be favoured or established by law in preference 
to others." 

Vol. XIII. p. 178. Lastly, the Convention of New York declared, 
'* That the people have an equal, natural, and unalien- 
able right, freely and peaceably to exercise their religion, 
according to the dictates of conscience; and that no reli- 
gious sect or society ought to be favoured, or established 
by law, in preference to others." 

Thus, sir, we see that toleration — that iio reli- 
gious test, was the very corner-stone laid by our 
illustrious progenitors, at the foundation of the tem- 
ple of liberty. Even the highly interesting state of 
New Jersey, whose bosom was not yet cicatrized, 
bearing the hallowed wounds of Monmouth, and of 
Trenton, though she gravely asked for it, could not 
obtain a test. Nor could South Carolina, with all 
her just weight of character — fresh in the renown 
of her statesmen, and the brilliancy of her achieve- 
ments, obtain the insertion of the little word 
<' otherf^ because, that would have implied, that 
there was some hind of test, and the framers of the 
constitution would not suffer any thing in it, even 
by implication, to smack of such a conclusion. Sup- 
pose, out of the 213 representatives now in con- 
gress, one " whose head no hellebore could cure,^' 
were to rise in his place, and move to amend the 
constitution, by inserting a religious test j I am cer- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. lOf 

tain, he would not get a solitary member to second 
him. His name might descend to posterity, but it 
would be like Arostratus, who fired the temple at 
Ephesus ; and if, in August, '76, a test had not been 
foisted into the constitution of Maryland, any one 
who would attempt it, at this period, would share 
the same fate. If such a thing could not be even 
dreamt of then, why should it be suffered to exist ? 
Like the unprofitable fig-tree, it bears no fruit, 
^^ cut it down, why cumbereth it the ground?" We 
have now twenty-four states, eleven of which have 
been added since the revolution; in every one of 
which, a religious test has been expressly excluded ; 
what can be a stronger proof of the genius and spi- 
rit of the age in which we live? Even in the old 
states, but two or three retain a test — in the others, 
it is expressly excluded. A person was, some year 
or so past, elected in the North Carolina legislature ; 
she has a strict test — his seat was attempted to be 
vacated ; it was determined that the state test was 
repugnant to the constitution of the United States, 
and he retained his seat! — he was a Jew! What 
does this show, but that an isolated and odious dis- 
ability like this, is swept away before the age. 

Yet, a writer under the signature of Orthodox, 
a large and well written paper, as to style and so- 
phistry, which has been officiously, nay, obtrusive- 
ly laid on the tables of the members of this house, 
and which, I presume, comes from high and opulent 



108 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

aathority ; perhaps from a bishop, who was bred a 
lawyer, or from the private pen of some modern 
Gil Bias, and some sage writer of Homilies. But 
from the preponderance of astutia in this produc- 
tion, I think our modern wag will not tell his scrib- 
bling reverence, that his faculties begin to fail — but 
I will tell him, that he has misstated and misquoted 
the constitutions and the facts, &c. 

To maintain the propriety of our still retaining 
the test, he says — ^' In several of the states, the 
Christian religion is expressly recognised and esta- 
blished. To make this assertion more effectual, he 
puts an asterisk (*) to it; and immediately under 
" Orthodox," at the bottom of the fifth column of 
his ''Bemarks on the proposed alteration of the 
Constitution of Maryland, in relation to the Test 
required for those who hold ojfices,^^ he enumerates 
the states which have a test, or provisions tanta- 
mount to it, in their several constitutions. 

1st.-— Massachusetts. She has not a full test, but 
very modified and restricted. Next, Jersey — I 
think he is wrong, from the view I have taken of 
her constitution ; but not having the original char- 
ter, to which it refers, I cannot be positive. 3d. — 
Pennsylvania. Here he shows the cloven foot. He 
thought, perhaps, the sceptical might take the trou- 
ble to look up the first, and finding him correct, 
would take the balance on faith — not so with me ; 
I will sift him to the last grain. In the teeth of his 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 109 

assertion^ this is the constitution of Pennsylvania: — ■ 
Art. 9j Sec. 4. " JVb person who acknowledges the 
bemg of a God^ and a future state of rewards and 
punishments, shall, on account of his religious 
sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or 
place of trust, or profit, under this common- 
wealth,^^ — Would this prevent a Jew, or a Mahome- 
dan, or any other religious person under the canopy 
of heaven ? — I suspect not. The 3d, or antecedent 
article, is equally liberal. 4th, Delaware— this hits 
his reverence plump on the head. The 1st Art. 
and 2nd Sec. says :"-*^^.A^o religious test shall be 
required as a qualification to any office or public 
trust, under this state.'''' Now, on my honour, if I 
were certain " Orthodox" was a layman, I would 
say he told a palpable falsehood ; but fearing, lest 
he may be something amphibious, '■^ some bishop- 
lawyer, or some lawyer-bishop," I will only prove 
he has told it. 5th, Maryland- --Ah! you are too 
right there"-^^it is the very head and front of her 
offending." 6th, North Carolina-— right again. 7th, 
and last. South Carolina— -as wrong as if he had 
burnt his coat or cassock. How reads the book ? 

Kv\aq\^ ^.—''' Ml persons who shall be chosen 
or appointed to any office of profit or trust, before 
entering on the execution thereof, shall take thefoU 
lowing oath : ^ I do swear, [or affirm,') that I am 
duly qualified, according to the constitution of this 
state, to exercise the office to ivhich I have been ap- 



S 10 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

pointed, and ivill, to the best of my abilities, dis- 
charge the duties thereof, and preserve, protect, 
and defend the constitution of this state, and of the 
United States.'' " Not one word in the constitution 
about recognising or establishing any particular re- 
ligion. How unworthy such deception, to be at- 
tempted against the people, and doubly so, when 
offered under the solemn sanction of religious truth ! 
He speaks not one word of all the new states and 
their constitutions ; and yet, what a strong instance 
is the state of Louisiana- --though composed of 
French and Spaniards, in large proportion, who are 
as tenacious of their religion as any people on earth, 
yet they require no test ; nor does the present ter- 
ritorial government of Florida, though in its crysalis 
as to state sovereignty, and just disincumbered from 
the arms of the ^*^ Beloved Ferdinand." 

And now for a few of this writer's false facts. The 
address is too long, and too full of inaccuracies, to 
be taken up regularly- --a great deal of historical 
and theological detail-"discussion of the general 
and state sovereignty, &c. &c., all pretty wide of 
the main question. But at the head of the third co- 
lumn, he says :— ^^ This provision (that is, the test,) 
is now the stumbling-block, and the cause of great 
clamour, not among the Jews, it must be admitted." 
No, sir, the Jews have not made a ^^ great clamour," 
because that would be the means of injuring both 
their cause and their standing in our country. But 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 1 1 J 

directly contrary to the inference of this writer, 
they have gravely and decorously, feelingly and 
ably presented, by my hands, a memorial to this ho- 
nourable body, to relieve them from this test. He 
goes on— "The truth appears to be, that the jnost 
zealous advocates of the proposed change, care no- 
thing about the Jews;"— talks about pagan idola- 
ters, heathens, infidels, &c. &c. I am not going to 
discuss either metaphysical or religious subjects, or 
to advocate this creed, and attack that— I am speak- 
ing on a subject of civil policy. If, in my investi- 
gation, I shall sometimes be obliged to touch on 
things and opinions of a sacred and holy character, 
I shall endeavour to do it with all due reverence 
and solemnity. 

Having, I hope, fully discussed and proved be- 
yond a doubt, my first proposition, I will proceed 
to the consideration of my second, under which;, 
those parts of " Orthodox'^ which I have last read, 
will be noticed and refuted. I should be deficient 
in courtesy, if I were not to notice him, after this 
solemn invocation just before his parting benedic- 
tion. " To our Christian bretliren of the state, 
we appeal for exertion in this struggle. To the 
members of the legislature, in an especial manner, 
we direct our hopes. We invite them to pause, as 
on a tremendous precipice, ^^—'i My dukedom to a 
dernier," this writer would relish an established 
religion, and a union between church and state ! 



112- SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL, 

However, I will proceed in the plan I have laid 
down. 

It is certainly not only the policy of the union, 
hut of each particular state, to encourage the emi- 
gration of moral, enterprising, and affluent citizens 
to their shores. This assertion is now received as 
a political axiom.— The state, which creates or re- 
tains disqualifications, on any description of per- 
sons, will throw them into other states which have 
not such disqualifications, and therehy injure hep- 
self. Should this honourable house negative this 
bill, who could blame those gentlemen of the He- 
brew church, who have signed the memorial before 
you, from quitting your state with their families, 
their connexions, and wealth, and choosing some 
other state, where they enjoy equal rights and fa- 
vour, with all its citizens. Some persons may think 
that we should lose but little, either in character, 
wealth, or numbers ; but I assure you, I have a do- 
cument here, which confutes such a conclusion. Be- 
fore I left Baltimore, I wrote on a small scrip of 
paper some half dozen queries, and requested Solo- 
mon Etting, Esq. to have them faithfully and truly 
answered, and transmit them to me. He did so, 
and enclosed a copy of them for general Winder, of 
the senate. This is Mr. Etting's original statement, 
which I will read through as it is written. 



SPEECH ON THE .WAX UILL. 113 

Solomon Ktting's Answers to Col. Worthington's tliieries. 

Question 1st. — The number of Jews in the state of Ma- 
ryland? 

Answer — Supposed, at least, one hundred and fifty. 

Ques. 2nd. — The wealth of the Jews in the state of Ma- 
ryland? 

Ans. — General wealth difficult to ascertain; among: a 
few heads of families, we may estimate half a million of 
dollars. 

Ques. 3d. — The number of Jews in the United States? 

Ans. — At least estimate, six thousand. 

Ques. 4th. — The wealth of the Jews in the United 
States? 

Ans. — This is ecjually difficult to ascertain with ques 
tion 2nd. Among the heads of families, m the principal cities, 
we may fairly osfunale the wealth at ten ynillions of dollars. 

Ques. 5th. — What offices have been held, or are now 
held, by members of the profession? 

Ans. — To enumerate these, in detail, would be extreme- 
ly tedious and difficult; we will mention a few within im- 
mediate recollection. 

Solomon Bush, colonel in the American revolution, a 
distinguished officer, and who died after the revolution, of 
the wounds received, or effiicts arising out of them. 

There were many valuable members, officers, principally, 
in the revolution, from the south chiefly, who were nearly 
all cut off and destroyed early in the war; they were ever 
at their post, and always foremost in hazardous enter- 
prises. 

Reuben Etting — marshal of Maryland, appointed by Mr. 
Jefferson, and who continued in office until his removal 
from the stale. 

Ditto — captain of a volunteer corps, raised very early 
in Baltimore, long under his command, and grew so nu- 
15 



1 14 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL.. 

merous as to require being divided into companies, and 
thrown into the 5th regiment of Maryland militia. 

Solomon Etting — Captain 5th regiment Maryland mi- 
litia, appointed by governor Paca. 

B. I. Cohen — Lieutenant in Columbian Volunteers, at- 
tached to the 5th regiment Maryland militia, appointed by 
Charles Ridgely, of Hampton, Esq. 

It may be well here to mention, that all the above of- 
fices under the state of Maryland, were understood so to 
be, and were held, without subscribing to the religious test 
oath. 

The strongest case applicable to the subject, is one at 
present existing, and may thus be related: — Early in the 
spring of the existing year, 1823, a number of spirited 
young men formed a volunteer corps of riflemen, known 
by the name of the '* Marion Corpsj" without any pre- 
vious knowledge on his part, of even the existence of this 
company, they unanimously determined, and did elect 
Benj. I. Cohen their captain — a commission was received 
from Governor Stevens, but not qualified to, of course, in 
consequence of the existence of the test law^ the corps 
were made acquainted with this fact, and a resignation on 
his part of the command l)y the captain elect — at a meet- 
ing of the corps, called for the purpose, it was unanimously 
determined that no captain should be elected until the fate of 
the bill at present before the legislature, should be decid- 
ed, and the corps is, at this time, commanded by the first 
lieutenant. This was the corps to which was presented 
the flag, by Governor Stevens, on behalf of Mr. Cohen, as 
a testimony of his gratitude for their highly distinguish- 
ed marks of esteem. 

There are very many instances of local appointment in 
the different states, both in a military and civil capacity? 



SPEECH ON THE JEW niLL. i IS 

wherever the IsraeUtes are numerous, or large and pow- 
erful, those of talent will be found amongst them. 

M. M. Noah — Major in Pennsylvania, Consul to Tunis 
for the American government, and on his return to the coun- 
try, appointed by the legislature of New York to the im- 
portant station of Sheriff of their metropolis. 

A. A. Massias — Major i« the U. S. army during the 
late war, and retained in the service at the reduction of 
the array; he is now pay-master for the southern depart- 
ment. 

U, P. Levy — Lieutenant in the navy of the United States; 
has repeatedly distinguished himself in the service — last 
commander of the U. S, schooner Revenge, and lately 
sailed for London and Paris, as bearer of despatches to the 
ministers of the g^overnment at those places. 

There ai"« very many midshipmen, cadets, 8cc. Sec. 

Here is another paper, which contains the names 
of a corps of voUinteer infantry, in Charleston, S. C. 
in February, 1779; it was composed chiefly o^Israel- 
iiesy residing in King's street, and was commanded 
by Capt. Lushington, and afterwards fought under 
Gen. Moultrie at the battle of Beaufort. 

And yet this writer, " Orthodox," wishes to 
make you believe, that the father of his country, 
the hero of the revolution, under whom those Israel- 
ites so gallantly fought for freedom, would be in fa 
vour of the present restriction. At the bottom of 
his third column, he quotes from Washington's 
Farewell Address, enjoining not only morality, but 
religion. Who doubts the correctness of those in- 



1 16 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 



junctions for a moment? — No one. Does he say a 
word al)out preferring one religion to another? 
No. Then it has no peculiar hearing on this ques- 
tion, unless it be to show, that by his not limiting 
it to any particular sect, he is in favour of complete 
non-restriction in this respect. 

It is fortunate that I have in my hands, proofs 
that the father of his country was in favour of the 
political equality of the Israelites in this particular. 
This is enough for me ; for I make this a question 
between the 150 Israelites in the state of Maryland, 
and citizens thereof, whose elegant and touching 
memorial has been handed in and read at your table, 
and this branch of the legislature. I will not be 
fighting for .ibstract principles or rights — I am 
speaking for 150 Jews, amongst a few of whom alone, 
is one million and a half of property, in the lands, 
chattels, and funds of your own state ; men who, 
and their forefathers, have fought with Washing- 
ton for the very liberty you now enjoy, and yet 
you refuse them a full and equal participation. 

These old papers have been preserved in the 
family of Mr. Cohen, of Baltimore, for many years ; 
it shows how near to the heart of that people, this 
subject lies ; yet how noiseless and unobtrusive they 
have been upon it ; and it evinces their veneration 
for the American chief who poured this balm into 
their wounds. 

I will read them, or rather some extracts from 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 1 17 

them, bearing on the present point. I have select- 
ed three, all to be found in the Gazette of the Uni- 
ted States, of June, September, and December, 
printed at New York and Philadelphia, in 1790. 

Extracts of Addresses to General Washington. 
1st. — From the Hebrew congregation of the city of Savannah, of 
the 4th of June, 1790, presented by Mr. Jackson, one of the repre- 
sentatives of Georgia, signed by Levi Sheftal, president, in behalf of 
the Hebrew congregation. 

" Siu: — Your unexampled liberality^ and extensive philan- 
thropy^ have dispelled that cloud of bigotry and superstition 
which has long^ as a veil, shaded religion., unrivetted the fetters 
of enthusiasm, enfranchised us uiith all the privileges and im- 
munities of free citizens^ and initiated us into the grand mass 
of legislative mechanism" 

Answer of General Washington. 

" May the same wisdom-working Deity, who long since 
delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, 
planted them in the promised land, whose providential 
agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these 
United States as an independent nation, still continue to 
water them with the dews of heaven, and to make the in- 
habitants of every denomination participate in the tempo- 
ral and spiritual blessings of that people whose God is 
Jehovah." 

The next is an address of the Hebrew congrega- 
tion in Newport, Rhode Island, which is so hand- 
somely written, that I must take leave to read it 
entire. 

To the President of the United States of America. 
" SiRr-rPermit the children of the stock of Abraham to 



1 18 SPEECH ON THF, JEW BILL. 

appvoacU you, with llic most cordial affection and esteem 
for your person and merit, and to join with our fellow-citi- 
zens in welcoming you to Newport. 

" With pleasure we j'eflect on those days — those days of 
difficulty and danger, when the God of Israel, who delivered 
David from the peril of the sword, shielded your head in 
the day of battle; and we rejoice to think, that the same 
spirit who rested in the bosom of the greatly beloved 
Daniel, enabling him to preside over the provinces of the 
Babylonish empire, rests, and ever will rest, upon you, 
enabling you to discharge the arduous duties of CHIEF 
MAGISTRATE of these states. 

" Deprived as we heretofore have been of the invalu- 
able rights of free citizens, we now (with a deep sense of 
gratitude to the Almighty disposer of all events) behold 
a government erected by the MAJESTY OF THE PEO- 
PLE-— a government, which to bigotry gives no sanction 
—to persecution no assistance; but generously affording 
to ALL, liberty of conscience, and immunities of citizen- 
ship: deeming every one, of whatever nation, tongue, or 
language, equal parts of the great governmental machine. 
This so ample, and extensive federal union, whose base is 
philanthropy, mutual confidence, and public virtue, we 
cannot but acknowledge to be the work of the great God, 
who ruleth in the armies of heaven, and among the inha- 
bitants of the earth, doing whatever seemeth to him good. 

"For all the blessings of civil and religious liberty, 
which we enjoy under an equal and benign administration, 
we desire to send up our thanks to the Ancient of days, 
the great preserver of men, beseeching him that the angel 
who conducted our forefathers through the wilderness 
into the promised land, may graciously conduct you 
through all the difficulties and dangers of this mortal life. 
And when, like Joshua, full of days and full of honours, you 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL- I 19 

are gathered to your fathers, may you be udnikted into 
the heavenly paradise, to partake of the water of life, and 
the tree of immortality. 

" Done and signed by order of the Hebrew congrega- 
tion, in Newport, (Rhode Island.) 

[Signed] MOSES SEIXAS, Warden. 

*^ Newport, Aug. 17, 1790." 

I must now be further indulged iu reading the 
whole of the reply : 

To the Hebrew congregation in Newport, Rhode Island. 

" Gentlemen: — While I receive with much satisfaction 
your Address, replete with expressions of affection and 
esteem, I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that 
I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial 
welcome I experienced in my visit to Newport, from all 
classes of citizens. The reflection on the days of difficulty 
and danger which are past, is rendered the more sweet 
from a consciousness that they are succeeded by days of 
uncommon prosperity and security. 

" If we have wisdom to make the best use of the advan- 
tages with which we are now favoured, we cannot fail, 
under the just administration of a good government, to 
become a great and a happy people. 

"The citizens of the United States of America, have a 
right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind 
examples of an enlarged and liberal policy — a policy 
worthy of imitation. All possess alike, liberty of con- 
science, and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more 
that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence 
of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise 
of their inherent natural rights. For. happily, the govern- 



120 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

ment of the United States, which gives to bigotry no 
sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that 
they who live under its protection, should demean them- 
selves as good citizens, in giving it, on all occasions, their 
effectual support. 

"It would be inconsistent with the frankness of my 
character, not to avow that I am pleased with your favour- 
able opinion of my administration, and fervent wishes for 
my felicity. May the children of the stock of Abraham, 
who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the 
good will of the other inhabitants— while every one shall 
sit in safety under his own vine and fig-tree, and there 
shall be none to make him afraid. 

"May the Father of all mercies scatter light, and not 
darkness, in our paths, and make us all in our several vo- 
cations, useful here, and in his own due time and way, 
everlastingly happy. 

[Signed] "GEORGE WASHINGTON." 

I come now to the third and last, to which I shall 
refer. It is " The Address of the Hebrew Congre- 
gations in the cities of Philadelphia, New York, 
Charleston and Richmond, to the President of the 
United States." As both the Address and the Re- 
ply are short, and very interesting, I will read them 
entire. 

" Sir — It is reserved for you to unite in affection for 
your character and person, every political and religious 
denomination of men; and in this will the Hebrew congre- 
gations aforesaid yield to no class of their fellow-citizens. 

*'We have hitherto been prevented by vaiious circum- 
stances peculiar to our situation, from adding our con- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 121 

gratulation to those which the rest of America have of- 
fered on your elevation to the chair of the federal govern- 
ment: Deign, then, illustrious Sir, to accept this our ho- 
mage. 

*'The wonders which the Lord of hosts hath worked 
in the days of our forefathers, have taught us to observe 
the greatness of his wisdom and his might, throughout 
the events of the late glorious revolution; and while we 
humble ourselves at his footstool in thanksgiving and 
praise for the blessing of his deliverance, we acknowledge 
you, the leader of the American armies, as his chosen and 
beloved servant. But not to your sword alone is our pre- 
sent happiness to be ascribed: that, indeed, opened the 
way to the reign of freedom; but never was it perfectly 
secure, till your hand gave birth to the federal constitu- 
tion; and you renounced the joys of retirement, to seal 
by your administration in peace what you had achieved 
in war. 

" To the eternal God, who is thy refuge, we commit in 
our prayer the care of thy precious life; and when, full of 
years, thou shalt be gathered unto the people, thy righte- 
ousness shall go before thee, and we shall I'emember, 
amidst our regret, ' that the Lord hath set apart the god- 
ly for himself,' whilst thy name and^thy virtues will remain 
an indelible memorial on our minds. 

''MANUEL JOSEPHSON. 

"For and in behalf and under the authority of the seve- 
ral congregations aforesaid. 

" Philadelphia, 13th December, 1790." 

To which the President was pleased to retui-n the following answer. 

" To the Hebrew Congregations^ in the cities of Philadelphia, New York, 
Charleston, and Riduuund, 

" Gentlemen — The liberality of sentiment towards each 
16 



122 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

Other, which marks every political and religious denomi- 
nation of men in this country, stands unparalleled in the 
history of nations. 

"The affection of such a people, is a treasure beyond 
the reach of calculation; and the repeated proofs which 
my fellow citizens have given of their attachment to me, 
and approbation of my doings, form the purest source of 
my temporal felicity. The affectionate expressions of 
your address, again excite my gratitude, and receive my 
warmest acknowledgment. 

"The power and goodness of the Almighty, so strongly 
manifested in the events of our late glorious revolution, 
and his kind interposition in our behalf, have been no less 
visible in the establishment of our present equal govern- 
ment. In war, he directed the sword; and in peace, he 
has ruled in our councils. My agency in both has been 
guided by the best intentions, and a sense of the duty 
which I owe my country. 

" And as my exertions have hitherto been amply re- 
warded by the approbation of my fellow citizens, I shall 
endeavour to deserve a continuance of it by my future 
conduct. 

" May the same temporal and eternal blessings which 
you implore for me, rest upon your congregations. 

"G. WASHINGTON.'* 

I have no doubt, numerous similar addresses and 
replies might be produced. These are amply suf- 
ficient to show the opinion of general Washington 
on this subject, and put to rest, I hope, for ever, 
any similar appeals to his great name, to support a 
religious test against any religion whatever, much 
less that of the children of Abraham. I therefore, 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 125 

not only contend for the abstract right, the general 
principle of no religious test, but take the bull by 
the horns at once, and say, that, contrary to early 
pledges, to all rational expectations, you withhold 
important privileges and benefits of your promised 
free government, from one hundred and fifty inha- 
bitants of your state, impeached with no crime, and 
charged with no earthly defalcation; but on the 
contrary, some of whom, you all know, for high 
character in society, for moral worth, and strict re- 
ligious duties, according to the ancient and vene- 
rated theology of their forefathers, are a pride and 
an ornament to any country. Who are those Jews 
whom you thus shut out of the pale of civil rights ? 
They are descended from a nation of mighty men, 
famed for military exploits, and their high literary 
attainments. The country of Solomon, of Saul of 
Tarsus, one of the strictest of the Pharisees, whose 
superhuman eloquence made Felix tremble, con- 
founded Agrippa on his throne, and shook the Areo- 
pagus of Athens, as he declared to them the unknown 
God, whom they ignorantly worshipped! who, if 
he filled the spot I now so feebly occupy, would, 
by the thunder of his voice, and the lightning of his 
eye, pierce through and dissipate this thick cloud 
which has so long hung over the better genius of 
your state. It was he who reasoned '^^ of tempe- 
rance, righteousness, and judgment to come.^' — 
Yet he was born a Jew, Who were the most sacred 



124 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

and famed holy men and prophets of the olden time? 
Elisha, Isaiahj Daniel, were all Jews. Was not our 
Saviour of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of 
Judah, of the family of David?--- Why, these peo- 
ple in religion were your especial progenitors ; and 
the same God who led Moses and the children of Is- 
rael out of the bondage of Egypt to the fertile vales 
ofPalestine,ledyou to independence, to happiness! 
You have no followers of the koran, nor the zenda 
vesta, nor the morals of Confucius, nor the shaster 
of the Bramins here, to complain of this test— so 
that the only people it practically affects, are the 
followers of Moses. Whether you repeal the test, 
or suifer it to remain, it will never affect any bad 
Christian ; for he who denies the truth and holiness 
of the religion of his fathers, will make your decla- 
ration of belief without even straining at the gnat. 
Your test has had no eiFect on the bad and hard- 
hearted; it is the good and the conscientious it 
bears so cruelly upon. 

To substantiate this important position, I will 
read the opinions of some of the ablest statesmen of 
the age in Europe---the opinions of two great rival 
political champions, Mr. Fox, and the younger Pitt. 

Mr. Fox said— "Men should be tried by their 
actions, not by their opinions. This, if true with 
respect to political, was more peculiarly so with re- 
gard to J'cligious opinions. In the position, that the 
actions of men, and not their opinions, were the 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 125 

proper objects of legislation, he was supported by 
the general tenor of the laws of the land/' 

As to the disabilities heaped on the Roman Ca- 
tholics of England, no man deplores them more than 
I do ; and were I a member of the British parlia- 
ment, I would be in the van to relieve them— be- 
cause, when those disabilities were created, there 
might have been some fear of a foreign ascendency- -- 
now there is none. I will go on further with Mr. 
Fox, who says: 

" There were many men, out of the established church, 
to whose services their country had a claim. Ought any 
such man be examined, before he comes into office, touch- 
ing his private opinions? — Was it not sufficient that he 
did his duty as a good citizen? Might he not say, without 
incurring any disability, I am a friend to the constitution, 
and on religious subjects must be permitted to think and 
act as I please? Ought their country to be deprived of the 
benefit she might derive from the talents of such men? 
But when did the test exclude the irreligious man, the 
man of profligate principles, or the man of no principle 
at all? Quite the contrary ; to such men, the road to pow- 
er was open — the test excluded only the man of tender con- 
science — the man who thought religion so distinct from 
all temporal affairs, that he held it improper to profess any 
religious opinion whatever, for the sake of a civil office. 
Was a tender conscience inconsistent with the character 
of an honest man? — or did a high sense of religion show 
that he was unfit to be trusted? Further, if the majority 
of the people of England should ever be in favour of the 



126 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

abolition of the established church, it ought to be abo- 
lished." 

I have before me some other remarks, both of Mr. 
Pitt and Mr. Fox, on the subject of the Test Act, 
Corporation Act,&c.; but I must conclude them; and 
I do not hesitate to say, this liberality of sentiment 
is, and has been, and ever will be, characteristic of 
great and liberal minds, in all ages, and in all coun- 
tries. Even where there is an established church, 
as in England, you see this liberality of opinion. 
Mr. Madison's remonstrances against the General 
Assessment of Virginia, in 1785, which I hold in 
my hand, breathes the same lofty and enlightened 
spirit — Church and State are distinct and separate 
here, and I hope they will ever remain so. 

Having thus established my propositions, beyond, 
I trust, the power of fair and honest contradiction, 
not by my own assertions and arguments, but by the 
highest authorities, supported by undeniable facts 
and calculations — my duty, if I consulted my ease, 
might here induce me to conclude ; but I am well 
aware, that a solid phalanx of numbers are arrayed 
against this bill, and it is not safe to leave the field, 
until I have exhausted every means in my power, 
far beyond my bare duty; then I shall repose, 
whether victorious or vanquished, in that tranquil- 
lity which nothing can disturb. 

Mr. Speaker :— In the remainder of the observa- 
tions which I shall submit, as having a direct bear- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 12f 

ing, or even a remote influence, on this question, I 
shall be altogether guided by my recollections and 
feelings at the moment, as they may present or 
evolve themselves in the actual discussion. I now, 
therefore, pray you to listen to me with rather an 
indulgent ear. 

Sir, I am myself a Christian—an humble and 
feeble one indeed, and one who I am conscious is 
unworthy to '^^ unloose even the latchets of the 
shoes" of many here present. And this charity 
and liberality which now induce me to advocate the 
cause of the house of David, make me feel that I aim 
at some distant and faint similitude to the acts of him 
who was all goodness, all charity- --who could say to 
his enemies and persecutors, ^'^ Forgive them, they 
know not what they do.'^"-On this, Christianity in 
spirit and in truth, not in ceremony mid persecution ^ \\ 
I enjoy peace here, and humbly hope for eternal 
happiness hereafter. The sect in which I was bred, 
is the Protestant Episcopal Church. I have no 
doubt, a person may get to heaven that way. My 
fathers thought it good enough for them ; and I see 
numbers every day, of as good people as any I know, 
remaining in the same persuasion. Therefore, till 
I shall be convinced it is not good enough for me, 
I shall abide with them. The great fear I have, is, 
that I am not, nor never shall be, good enough for 
it— But that will be judged of hereafter. Yet I go 
to see and hear all sects ; and I have full charity 
for all. I like some better than others, to be sure ; 



128 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 



but I have not a spark of enmity nor antipathy against 
a single one. Therefore, with me, the good and 
upright of every denomination, should enjoy com- 
plete, equal, civil and political rights. 

I know the great cry in this country against the 
Jews, is, that they crucified Christ. It was specially 
pre-ordained by God, that act should be done, and 
they should do it. It was for your redemption. 
What right then have you to take into your hands 
vengeance and punishment? God can and will vin- 
dicate his own acts. Are you commanded to it? 
No: you are commanded the very reverse, by 
the very victim, the very author of the religion 
you profess— whose solitary sermon on the mount, 
is worth all that ancient and modern philosophers 
ever wrote or spoke ! S uppose ancient Greece were 
to form a confederation of all her states, and deny 
the Athenians equal privileges, because they forced 
the half Christian Socrates to drink the deadly 
hemlock: it would be not less unjust than your en- 
mity, and, I say, persecution, against the Jews. I 
know not what these people may be in Europe, 
where they are borne down by despotism and co- 
vered with slander ; but in America, they are some 
of our worthiest and best citizens : nor in their deal- 
ings, appearance, and intercourse in life, can you 
here discriminate them from other persons in similar 
pursuits. Every avenue to wealth and official sta- 
tion is open to them under our general government. 



SPRKOII ON IHK JKW BILL. 129 

A Jew may be president of the United States; and 
yet in Maryland lie cannot be a constable! unless 
he makes di false declaration. He cannot bring up 
his sons to the practice of the law, the high road 
to fame, and sometimes wealth, in this country. Was 
ever any thing more cruel? I know an instance: 
Mr. Etting, of Baltimore, had a son of talents and 
acquirements : he spared no pains on him. The 
youth wished to study law. The father, with pain 
in his heart and tears in his eyes, told him that he 
could not. Eveii to be an attorney of a county court, 
he would have first to renounce the religion of his 
father. Is not this an outrage on the age? Yet in 
other states there are eminent lawyers, Jews ; and 
so there will be here; for this wretched disability, 
if not this session, will certainly shortly be annihi- 
lated. 

Suppose Rothschild, who, with his immense 
wealth, like some mighty magician, dissolves and 
forms again the coalitions of emperors, kings and 
potentates, by some convulsion of the old world be 
driven to seek an asylum in this western hemi- 
sphere— -Though our climate,our general character, 
our central position, our proximity to the metro- 
polis of the union, nay, many other peculiarities, 
should at first invite him to pitch his tabernacle in 
Maryland ; think, that the moment he recollected 
this test, he would not dash the garland chalice from 
his lips? With his genius and his wealth he would 
17 



130 SPEECH ON THE JEW HILL. 

turn with loathing from you, to live in some Free 
State. No more than a month or two ago, a Protes- 
tant Church was involved in debt, in New Orleans, 
for about 820,000. It was set up at public sale, 
the pastor and congregation being unable to pay it, 
and bought by Mr. Judah Torah, a Jew. What did 
he do with it?---did he convert it into a warehouse, 
or set it up to make money on it ? No : he gave it 
back, at a moderate rent, to the pastor and congre- 
gation. Verily, this ^^ was an Israelite in whom 
there was no guile.'' Would a Christian have done 
this for a Jewish synagogue? Yes, if he were "as 
good as a Christian, as that was as a Jew. His mere- 
ly making his Declaration^ which perhaps might 
enable him to be governor of the state, would have 
put him no nearer doing such an act as this, than if 
he had never made it. 

Let us say a word or two of the fair daughters 
of Jerusalem ; they, like our own matrons and maid- 
ens in this land of liberty, must have warm sympa- 
thies and acute sensibilities on subjects like these. 
Why should they not? Their ancestors had. In 
what ancient or modern history do you find a su- 
perior to the beauteous adopted daughter of Mor- 
decai— -whose devotion to country, whose obedience 
to her husband, placed her so far above Vashti, the 
rebellious queen of Ahasuerus, who ruled from In- 
dia to Ethiopia? The virtuous Susannah? And 
those amiable sisters, Martha and Mary, so exem 



SPEECl^'ON THE JEW BILL. 131 

plarily solicitous^ not only about domestic duties? 
but the higher concerns of futurity ! ---their daugh- 
ters of our time have rather improved than degene- 
rated : they are still the roses of Sharon and the 
lilies of the valley. After thus seeing and knowing 
those people, experiencing the beneficial result from 
no Test in our general government, none in any of 
the new states, and retained but in two or three of 
the old---finding no possible ill to flow from this 
liberality, I am at a loss to discover on any rational 
or religious principle, why anyone can, at this time 
of day, vote to retain it. Has any one a sort of blind 
and inveterate faith?-— Against such, I am aware, 
even the most transcendent eloquence would be 
vain. 



-" The lover may 



Distrust the look that steals his soul away; 
The child may cease to think that it can play 
With Heaven's rainbow; Alchyraists may doubt 
The shining ore their crucible turns out; 
Butfailh, too ardent faith, once wedded fast 
To some dear doctrine, hugs it to the last." 

If they are not satisfied with all this experience, 
In their own country, I fear nothing I can say will 
alter them. And as Lazarus, while reposing in 
Abraham's bosom, said to Dives, ^^ neither woidd 
they believe one, although he returned from the 
dead." They already have Moses and the ])rophets. 

But, Sir, religion is made the mere stalking-horse 



132 SPEECH ON THK JEW BILL. 



—it has nothing to do with this question — it is 
resorted to as a political fire-brand — as an election- 
eering expedient. We see pious persons of all de- 
nominations, whether Roman Catholic, Protestant, 
Methodist, &c. in favour of the repeal, and others 
of the same character against it. I have talked 
with many gentlemen here, who say they are in 
favour of the repeal, but come pledged to vote 
against it. I certainly shall not undertake to say, 
that they are not bound by those pledges — they 
best understand their own consciences — I am no 
casuist. As to myself, if I were to give a positive 
pledge, and the state of things and my opinion did 
not change honestly and rationally, from what they 
were when I gave the pledge, I would abide by it. 
But I w^ould not suffer a portion of my constituents, 
who I was not morally certain were a majority, but 
believed to be a minority, to direct and control me 
on a great constitutional question like this. Indeed, 
as we take an oath on constitutional questions, the 
general rule in politics, is, that on those questions 
you ought not to suifer yourself to be bound by in- 
structions. I rather think so myself — certainly not 
subsequent to your election- --but even then, or at 
any other time, whether you pledge or not, if you 
know and believe that your own opinion is contrary 
to a majority of your constituents, you ought to re- 
sign, or vote their will. 

I have no doubt but a large majority of the people 



SPEECH ON THK JEW BILL. 133 

of Maryland are in favour of the repeal---and a mem- 
ber here, on a constitutional question, acts for the 
state-— therefore the little sectional politics should 
not govern him. In that view then pledges appear 
to me no more capable of chaining a delegate down 
to the earth, than were the withes, whereby the 
Philistines attempted to confine the strong man in 
Scripture. The repeal passed both branches of the 
legislature last session; it has just passed, and come 
down to us from the grave senate this session, and 
I trust a majority of this house will give the finish- 
ing blow to this evil, and wipe this stain for ever 
from our code. Once repeal this Test, and it will 
never again be even attempted to restore it. 

On this subject, had I the power, I would send 
forth my voice, that it should be heard from Damas- 
cus to Ezion Gebar ; up hither and down thither 
Jordan- --from the Arabian Gulf to the Pillars of 
Hercules. It sheald roll its swell over the slum- 
bering fisherman where Tyre once stood, and rever- 
berate amidst the mountains of Gilboa. 

Sir, I impugn the motives of no gentlemen in 
this house, who may vote against this Confirmatory 
Act. Many advocates of the Test, both in and out 
of this house, I have no doubt, in their own judg- 
ment, are governed by high and pious motives. 
But I have thought some persons are in favour of 
the Test, because it operates as a sort of monopoly 
of offices. The more people you disqualify from 



134 SPKECH ON THE JEW BILL, 

holding officesj the more remain for them and their 
friends. 

This Test, Sir, is like those powerful genii in the 
Arabian tales, placed at the portals to guard the 
treasure within ; it stands like the cherubim of old, 
at the gate, with their flaming swords, to watch the 
Hesperian fruit of office and of place. Though, 
unlike the cherubim of old, the innocent, not the 
guilty, are here the objects of opposition. It is said, 
the Jews enjoy every thing in Maryland, except 
appointment to office. Is this so slight a prohibi- 
tion?-— Is not wealth, and honour, and consequence, 
often, very often, included in this prohibition ?--- 
Is not political power, and office, and place, and 
patronage, with many men a ruling passion ? If 
then our once happy and perfect first parents, could 
not be contented with every possession^ but craved 
even the solitary apple that was forbidden them--- 
how can the children of Abraham rest contented 
under a prohibition, which includes so many im- 
portant and piquant incentives !---This is human 
nature. How was it with Haman, the high cham- 
berlain of the king---blest with every thing, even 
admitted with the royal spouse, the only guest at 
the queen's banquet-— yet, what .availed all that, 
when there remained at the king's gate one solitary 
individual, who sat still, and declined paying him 
homage and respect ! 

Some fear, if we destroy the Test, we shall in- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 135 

jure, nay, destroy, the Christian religion- —why is 
it not destroyed in those states where it never has 
existed?-- -nearly fifty years have tested the wisdom 
of the omission. Why does it not affect your whole 
general government, congress and all ? Are they, 
or any one of them, less religious than this assembly, 
or any one of it?---Sir, that religion, whose found- 
er was shadowed out in the Polio of the Mantuan 
Bard, to the heathen world, and by the Jewish 
prophets, and chief by him ^^ whose hallowed lips 
were touched with fire," to the Christian world, is 
not to be injured nor destroyed, by liberality, by 
charity ! This Test is a restriction on the people--- 
it says, they shall not elect a man for a particular 
service, unless he declare, after his election, that 
he possesses a particular superadded qualification, 
\vhich the people, who may have elected him, think 
has nothing to do with that service. The people 
have cause to complain, and a large majority of them 
do. It is vulgarly called a Jew Bill ; it might as 
well be called a Mahomedan or Persian Bill-"in- 
deed, its most proper name is, a Turk Bill. 

It is against the spirit of the age--- it is against 
the spirit of your declaration of rights : and on that 
rock, the constitution of the Union, I build my ar- 
gument; and all the powers of sophistry and decep- 
tion shall not prevail against it. tn this position I 
rest secure and inexpugnable! 

I will for ever hold up my hands against this re- 



136 SPEECH ON THE JEW lilLL. 

striction — it is the same spirit of persecution which 
drove our ancestors from Europe, from culture and 
civilization j and they preferred a settlement here, 
with freedom, amidst savages and a wilderness. 
Why do you not perform the precept of the reli- 
gion you declare in ? — " Do unto others as ye would 
they should do unto you." — No, you do not, un- 
less you shall confirm this law. Do you not take 
away every spur to high-minded and honourable 
ambition ?---even professions by which they might 
earn their daily bread ! Do you not wish to continue 
them for ever hewers of wood and drawers of wa- 
ter?— -You will be mistaken---already the mandate 
for this repeal has gone forth, and it will, it must, 
ere long, be obeyed. I wish to pluck from the pile 
of religious intolerance, this last brand, and extin- 
guish it for ever. 

I shall enter my vote solemnly against the test; 
whether my exertions be successful or not, I cannot 
tell ; but be they as they may, I regard this as one 
of the proud days of my life, and though, like many 
past ones, bright to myself, it may not be so fortu- 
nate to others as I could wish. 

Israel prays to you in her oppression and tribu- 
lation ! Hear her---you have no excuse ; for I say, 
there is balm in Gilead---there is a physician there! 
It rests with you, who have the power, to restore 
health to the daughter of her people! 



SPEECH 

OF 

JOHN S. TYSON, ESQ. 

DELIVERED 
IN THE HOUSE OF DELEGATES OF MARYLAND, 1825, 

ON THE 

JEW BILL. 



Mr. Speaker, 

After having been for twenty years Engaged in 
this arduous struggle for the rights of man, and sus- 
tained during the whole of that time repulse upon 
repulse, and disaster upon disaster, having felt the 
sweets of a victory obtained at one session, embit- 
tered by discomfiture at another— the friends of 
religious toleration succeeded during the last assem- 
bly, in making a breach in the walls of the enemy. 
Under auspices the most favourable, with renewed 
vigour in their arms, and ardour in their hearts, 
they again approach the broken wall, exclaiming, 
in the language of Henry, before Harfleur, and with 
the like assurance of success, 

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more." 
18 



138 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

It is natural for us to inquire, why the triumph 
of this cause has been so long delayed? 

I answer, because of the ignorance of some of the 
people, the prejudices of others, the bigotry of one 
portion, and the honest, but mistaken zeal of an- 
other- --an ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, and zeal, 
fostered by political demagogues, who, though in 
heart and soul, they were neither Christian, Jew, 
nor Turk, professed to be the humble supporters of 
the religion of Jesus. 

Hence it was, that an opinion was inculcated 
among the people, that the test bill, as it was call- 
ed, was a bill to abolish Christianity— -that the state 
was about to be inundated with Jews and Turks— - 
that Maryland would become another Judea, and 
Baltimore another Jerusalem. Those demagogues 
have, however, within the last year, preserved a 
commendable silence. The people have been left 
free, to think and act for themselves-- -and they have 
left their delegates free to think and act for them- 
selves ; and the question is now submitted to an un- 
pledged legislature. 

On all constitutional questions, and particularly 
on one of this kind, the first cry is, that the consti- 
tution is a sacred instrument, it ought not to be 
touched, it is much better to endure grievances 
than to remove them by an alteration of the consti- 
tution. 

In India, the jjeople worship the great Mogul; 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 139 

in Europe^ they worship their kings and emperors; 
here, however, they worship their constitution ^ 
This, though better than the others, is bad ; because 
it is idolatry. Idolatry is still idolatry, whether the 
idol be a constitution or a king; and, I may add, 
that tyranny is still tyranny, whether the tyrant be 
a piece of paper in the shape of law, or a despot in 
his kingly robes. As the idolatry of a people to- 
wards their king is the strongest support of his de- 
spotism and the inherent vices of his nature, so the 
idolatry of a people towards their constitution, is 
the strongest support of the tyranny of that consti- 
tution, and its inherent vices. 

Think not that I undervalue the great charter 
by which our government is bound together---! ve- 
nerate, though I do not adore, our constitution ; and 
it is because I venerate it, that I am anxious to purge 
it of whatever is calculated to render it less and less 
an object of reverence. 

The constitution itself gives us the right to alter 
and amend it. It is our duty to put this right in 
exercise, whenever experience demonstrates its ne- 
cessity. I would search for the evil even through 
the ruins of the superstructure, and cleansing the 
foundation, build up the edifice anew, rather than 
permit the evil to remain, until it should itself have 
undermined the constitution, and in some ill-fated 
moment should bring it down in ruin upon our 
heads. But, sir, the evil we are now considering. 



140 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

is not so difficult of access—it is upon the surface 
of the constitution, ay, sir, upon the house-top, a 
standing and disgraceful spectacle in the eyes of all 
the world. 

But the benefits (it may be said) of this act of 
toleration will be circumscribed within narrow 
limits, will be enjoyed by only a few individuals — so 
solemn an instrument as a state constitution, should 
not be altered for the benefit of a few. What then? 
Will you do it when their number shall be greater? 
No. You will then say, that it would be danger- 
ous to grant constitutional privileges to so many 
Jews. Sir, the Hebrews of Maryland are more 
entitled now, if not to your justice, at least to your 
sympathies and charity, than they will be when the 
present handful shall become a multitude ; because 
they are weaker, more dependent upon your mag- 
nanimity ; less able to maintain of themselves the 
rights of freemen. Would you feel the less indig- 
nation towards the iron hearted, grasping guardian, 
because the victim of his rapacity was an infant or- 
phan? Oh! no, — you would execrate him the 
more, because of the weak and defenceless condi- 
tion of the suffering innocent. 

So should you regard these unfortunate Hebrews. 
They are the political orphans of your state, not 
made so by their follies or their crimes ; not by any 
of the natural and inevitable calamities of life ; but 
orphans by desertion, abandoned by their parent — 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 141 

cheated of their hirthright — nay, even deprived of 
their legitimacy. 

But, sir, honour ! the honour of the state is con- 
cerned. A nation may be dishonourable in a very small 
matter- --a nation may be dishonourable, nay, even 
cruel, without committing a single act of dishonour 
or cruelty. If a clause existed in your constitution, 
which would subject to stripes or imprisonment, 
every freeman who should flee from a foreign land 
for refuge to your shores—it might happen that not 
a solitary being would suffer himself to be the vic- 
tim of such injustice; but would the nation be any 
the less dishonourable or cruel? No-— because dis- 
honour and cruelty, as well as honour and humanity, 
are in the heart, in the intention, not in their ex- 
ternal manifestation by outward signs. Therefore, 
although there was not a single Jew in Maryland, 
the clause which subjected them to oppression being 
in the constitution, the dishonour is as great as it 
would be if a hundred thousand Jews suffered un- 
der its tyranny. 

The honour of the state, (I repeat it again,) the 
honour of the state is involved. The people of 
Maryland have gone on for many years past, as if 
they cared nothing about the honour of the state, 
when it was tarnished by themselves. They have 
jealousy enougli for the honour of the nation abroad 
-—if a foreign frigate fires into an American sloop 
of war, or a foreign government insults an American 



142 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

ambassador, how sensitive are we on the occasion. 
The cry of vengeance rings from Dan even unto 
Beersheba. We are ready to put the whole nation 
in a panoply of offence. But a much worse dis- 
honour we will suffer to remain untouched, when 
inflicted by our own hands, upon our own country. 
Yet in my apprehension this is infinitely worse, be- 
cause, in the former case, we being the victims of 
another's outrage, another shares a great portion of 
the shame, whereas, in the latter case, we bear it 
all alone. 

The next objection which I will notice, is one of 
a very singular character, and yet I have frequently 
heard it in conversation with some of the members 
of this house. They object to this bill, and will not 
vote for it, because it is only a Jew bill, and not also 
a Mahomedan bill— a Gentoo bill---in fine, a bill 
sweeping away at once, every religious test from 
the face of the constitution. If such a bill were 
now before the house, I venture to affirm that some 
of these very individuals would object to it because 
it was not exclusively a Jew bill— -I am afraid, lest 
with some, this objection is used as a cover to the 
world for real sentiments, or as a quietus upon self- 
reproach. 

If there are any who sincerely entertain the ob- 
jection, I would ask them, whether, by a universal 
abolition of the test bill, one of the objects to be 
gained, would be the relief of the Hebrews? Why 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. l4o 

not join in their relief now?---have you charity 
enough to comprehend the whole multitude of dis- 
cordant faiths in the world- --and have you at the 
same time too little for the persecuted Hebrews 
alone ! 

I, sir, am as strongly in favour of the entire abo- 
lition of the test as any member of this house can 
be. Indeed, one of the reasons which have urged 
me to the support of the Jew bill, is the belief that 
it would open the door for entire and unconditional 
toleration ; but I know that I cannot obtain that now. 
Am I, therefore, to suffer my charity to grow cold, 
and fall at once from the very boiling point to half 
a dozen degrees below zero ? No ; I will keep it 
warm and vivid by exercising it upon the sons of 
Abraham. I would fear that if it should perish now, 
even a bill for the universal abolition of the test 
would not hereafter be able to restore it to exist- 
ence. 

Sir, I can see many strong reasons, convincing 
to my mind, why the portals of religious freedom 
should be first opened to the Israelite — his religion 
ranks next to ours-— the God of the Christian is the 
God of the Jew. For the knowledge of that God, 
we are indebted to his fathers ; that knowledge, like 
the sacred fire of old, was preserved by them from 
century to century, until the power of Omnipotence, 
through the ministration of Jesus Christ, scattered 
it abroad upon the face of the earth, to burn with 



144 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

unextinguishable brightness. We owe to them the 
history of the antedikivian world ; we owe to them 
a great portion of the holy scriptures- --above all, we 
owe to them the birth of Jesus Christ. Let them, 
therefore, first enter the temple of religious free- 
dom, and not in company with the disciple of Ma- 
homet, or the blood-stained worshipper of Jugger- 
naut, whose presence is an abomination to the Jew. 

Having thus disposed of these preliminary objec- 
tions, which, if admitted, would close the very door 
of discussion upon us ; let us look at those which 
go to the merits of the bill. 

The Jews are unworthy of relief! Why are they 
so ? Bring forward your charges in the face of the 
day ; but first gather the dispersed of Judah, from 
the four winds of heaven, and assemble them at the 
bar of this earthly tribunal, where mortal man pre- 
sumes to act as the vicegerent of heaven. Sir, as 
the advocate of this people, I plead to your juris- 
diction. I deny your right to preside over the 
consciences of men. Ah ! but, I hear you say, we 
have the power, and will exercise it. That is true. 
You have the power, and you will exercise it, and 
we must prove our innocence, or suffer the punish- 
ment of guilt. 

When a tyrannical parliament had summoned the 
whole American nation at its tribunal bar, to show 
the cause why they should not be deprived of the 
rights of freemen, the immortal Burke stood for- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 145 

ward as their champion. He told the British par- 
liament that it was hard to draw a bill of indictment 
against a whole people. Were this great man now 
among us, and advocating (as he would advocate) 
the cause of the oppressed Israelites---he would say 
again : '^ It is hard to draw a bill of indictment 
against a whole people." There is nothing like it 
in the history of the world; there is no instance on 
record of the trial of a whole nation at once, except- 
ing that of the American people, before the Bri- 
tish parliament, and the Hebrew nation, before an 
American tribunal. The cases are alike. The dif- 
ficulty is the same in each : it is, that no such charge 
can be drawn into any shape, that will be consis- 
tent with the constitution of a free people, or the 
rights of human nature. This is our argument of 
strength, and if it be true, cannot be resisted. Ex- 
hibit your charges ! 

The Jews do not believe in Jesus Christ ! This 
cannot be disputed as a fact, but it is disputed as a 
cause of accusation. Who made them Jews? The 
same being who made you a Christian. They had 
as little control over the destiny which made them 
the sons of Abraham, as you had over that, which 
cast your lot among a Christian people. Born as 
you are in a Christian community, taught no other 
faith, or taught it only as an object of execration ; 
is it wonderful that you profess the Christian reli- 
gion? 

19 



€ 



14G SPF.RC'H ON THE JKW BILL. 



Born as the Jews arc, descendants from a line 
of ancestry, traceal)lc to the first period of the 
world's existence, all professing the same faith, a 
faith communicated by God himself, in the midst of 
thundering and lightning upon Mount Sinai,---edu" 
cated in tliis faith, from their earliest infancy, and 
wedded to it by the cementing power of persecu- 
tion, is it wonderful that they should continue to 
profess it? The wonder would be, if they should 
burst through the mighty mound of circumstances 
in whicli they are intrenched, and come over to 
the camp of Christianity. Sir, if they had been 
born as your were, they would have been Christians 
—if you had been born as they were, you would 
have been Jews. 

When, therefore, you censure the Hebrews for 
not being Christians, you arraign that mighty being 
who holds in his hands the reins of destiny, and who, 
for purposes inscrutible to us, has cast their lot in 
the midst of necessities, which compel them to be 
Jews. It is their fate, it may be their misfortune; 
if so, they are objects of Christian charity, not Tor 
Christian persecution. Are you still disposed to 
condemn them, because they do not believe in the 
religion of Jesus Christ? I would ask, how many in 
this Christian community of those who are not Jews, 
are believers in that faith ? how many in this assem- 
bly, I would emphatically ask, how many among those 
who oppose the claims of the children of Israel? 



Sl'KECH ON THE JEW BILL. HT 

You will answer, all. This may be true in one sense 
—all of you may have an historical belief of the ex- 
istence of Jesus Christ, and a theoretical belief isi 
the doctrines which he taught — but are you all be- 
lievers, in the true sense of the term ? do you prac- 
tise what you profess? If you do not, then are you 
in a v^orse condition than the Jew, who to the 
uttermost of his humble powers, fulfils the law of 
Moses. He lives up to the light and knowledge 
which he h^s received — you act against that which 
you profess. You have been born in the midst of 
Christianity---you have imbibed it, I had almost 
said, with your mother's milk ; you have from the 
pulpit, week after week, and in the closet, day by 
day, received line upon line, and precept upon 
precept: yet you wander from the line and disobey 
the precept. The Jew has none of your advan 
tages, and yet he does no v/orse than you ; nay, he 
does better! for the faithful Jew practises Chris- 
tianity without professing it---you profess it with- 
out practising it. 

*^ Judge not therefore, lest you be judged, for 
with whatsoever measure you mete, it shall be mea- 
sured to you again." Whosoever here is without 
this sin, let him cast the first stone. If this advice 
be taken, I am inclined to think that very few stones 
will be thrown ; no, not one — for I am confident that 
those who are without this sin, possess too much of 
the spirit of Christiunity, to raise the hand of vio 



# 



148 SPKECH ON THE JEW BILL. 



lence against these unfortunate sons of persecuted 
fathers. 

But you may say, we do not condemn the Jew 
because he disbelieves in a different religion, but 
because the principles of his religion are dangerous 
in a Christian community. 

I ask, how long have this race of people existed 
in this country? and when have they manifested 
that their principles were dangerous in a Christian 
community? Sir, they have existed here ever since 
the first settlement of the American colonies, during 
all which time, nothing of this dangerous character 
have they manifested. They have been as harmless 
as doves — like lambs before their shearers, they 
have not opened their mouths, even in reproach 
for the persecutions they have received. 

But the religion of that people, it will be said, 
though innocent in private life, is dangerous in the 
administration of government. This supposes the 
establishment of the Jewish religion as the govern- 
ment religion. The object of this bill is not to do 
that. If you mean to say, that within the limits of 
possibility, the Jewish religion may become the 
state religion, if it be encouraged by the passage 
of this bill, and therefore you ought to oppose it — 
I reply, you adopt an argument which goes to 
the exclusion of every religious sect in the com- 
munity—Catholic, Protestant, and Dissenter. But 
you may say that these are Christians, and they 



^ 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 149 



would not seek any ascendency over their fellow 
Christians. If they wet^e to gain it, they would 
not abuse their authority as the Jew would. Sir, 
this is reasoning against human nature, and in the 
face of history. Cloak religious power as you will, 
you will always discover with it one inseparable 
companion- "the disposition to abuse it. 

There is not a religious sect in the world, which 
has not abused power when it possessed it. Did 
not the pious Calvin, when he held the two-edged 
sword of civil and religious power, stain it with the 
blood of persecution? Did not the devout Presby- 
terians who fled from the tyranny of British into- 
lerance, to build the church of God upon the rock 
of Plymouth, forget the day of their past calamity, 
and stain even the paradise of liberty, with the 
blood of martyrs? But not to go to past ages, look 
at England, or rather look at Ireland. You there 
see six millions of Catholics, with human hearts in 
their bosoms, cheated of their birth- right, enslaved 
and trampled upon by the leaden foot of religious 
tyranny. 

You cannot expect more than this from the Jew- 
ish religion. And yet you have more to fear from 
every Christian sect than from the Jews, because 
every such sect is more numerous, and, therefore, 
more likely to usurp religious power. 

Besides, a Jewish hierarchy can only be supported 
by the laws of Moses. These never can be intro- 



150 S1'£EC11 ON THK JKW HILL. 

duccd into this country. For, in order to enforce 
them, there must be a temple ; tliat temple must be 
established at Jerusalem; there must be an especial 
order of priesthood, an order, which, since the 
destruction of the former priesthood, can only be 
established by divine authority. The idea of the 
establishment of the Hebrew religion in Maryland, 
as the government religion, is preposterous in the 
extreme ; it is a conjuration too weak to terrify even 
infant apprehension. If this state of Maryland, were 
the only spot on all the earth that afforded a rest- 
ing place for these wandering sons of Judah, in their 
pilgrimage through all lands, we might fear an in- 
undation — but, 

"The world is all before them, where to choose 
Their place of rest, and Providence their guide." 

They have, however, chosen one country, as the 
abiding place of their posterity. The Jews of the 
east look to the west — those of the west look to the 
east, and they all cast their eyes on that sacred 
spot, where, amid all the sublimities of nature, the 
divine law of Moses was first given to the Israelites. 
That is their place of future rest on earth. 

The last accusation which I shall notice is one of 
a heinous character indeed—The Jews crucified 
the Saviour of the world !---What Jews? Not the 
Jews of this age or this country -not the Jews of 
Maryland. ---The deed was done eighteen hundred 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 151 

years ago, and in a period of consummate wicked- 
ness throughout the world. We have divine au- 
thority, for saying tliat the sins of fathers shall not be 
visited upon their children later than the third and 
fourth generation- --and shall the flame of human 
vengeance burn for twenty centuries? 

There is not a devout Jew in existence, who does 
not mourn the deed done on Calvary. It was a 
bloody deed, and bloodily has Judah answered it. 
The generation who witnessed the crucifixion, had 
not passed away, ere the furies of fire and sword, 
famine and pestilence, mingled in the work of her 
destruction. Far and wide, 

" Temple and town went down, nor left a site. 

Chaos of ruins ! who shall trace the voice, 

O'er the dark fragments, cast a lunar light, 

And say, here is, or was, where all is doubly night?" 

Thousands were slain by the sword — the rest were 
carried into captivity ; no age, sex, or condition, 
was regarded; the very name of Judea was blotted 
from the roll of nations. Was not this enough? 

Their descendants, from generation to generation, 
for twenty centuries, have been the victims of a 
persecution, unparalleled in the history of any 
other people. In every period of the world's his- 
tory, in every nation under heaven, by every sect, 
they have been imprisoned, tortured, and massa- 
cred — sewed up in the skins of wild beasts, and 



152 SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

thrown to the dogs in Asia — chained to the galling 
car for life in Africa — burned to death in Spain — 
flayed alive in Italy — fleeced and sentenced to ba- 
nishment from time to time in England — plunged 
into the catacombs in France — knouted in Russia, 
or driven to perish in the wilds of Siberia. Is not 
this enough? 

It was only a few years since, that a poor Jew in 
Polish Lithuania, was condemned to be tortured 
to death on account of his religion. They cut ofl" 
his hands, and then thrusting the bleeding stumps 
into a pot of boiling pitch, called upon him to re- 
cant. He only exclaimed. Oh God of Abraham! 
have mercy upon them ! Oh God of Isaac ! have 
mercy upon them ! O God of Christ ! have mercy 
upon them ! and then expired. Which of these, 
Mr. Speaker, was the Christian? The records (may 
I say,) of heaven, will bear testimony in favour of 
the Jew. 

Ought not the world to be tired of such scenes? 
Shall we, instead of execrating them, join in the full 
spirit by which they are prompted ? We join in 
this spirit, if we deny them the rights of freemen — 
the inalienable rights of human nature. We do deny 
them these rights, when we refuse to pass the bill 
now upon your table. By the constitution of our, 
and theii' country, by the constitution of human na- 
ture, are they entitled to those civil and religious 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 153 

privileges, which this bill is intended to confer upon 
them. 

As the data upon which I found this position, I 
refer you to the immortal instrument which pre^ 
served to us the like privileges, when the hand of 
foreign domination was raised to crush them. I mean 
the charter of our independence. " We hold these 
truths to be self-evident— that all men are created 
equal :""-the Jews are men; therefore, created your 
equals— but do you treat them as such ? No. For 
you say, they are unworthy to sit by your side in 

the administration of a free government.---^' And en- 
dowed with certain inalienable rights. That among 
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'' 
But you have curtailed them in their liberty— you 
have hindered them in their pursuit of happiness ; 
the best of all kinds of liberty, religious liberty ; and 
the purest of all sorts of happiness, eternal happi- 
ness. "For the preservation of these, governments 
are instituted among men."— But your government 
is instituted for their destruction. You have put 
them under the ban of the republic. " Deriving 
their just power from the consent of the governed." 
They never gave you power to deprive them of 
their civil and religious privileges. The people of 
Maryland did not surrender to the convention who 
framed their constitution the right to control their 
consciences. They could not surrender it, because 
it was an inalienable right, 
20 



154 SPKKCH ON THE ,1EW BILL. 

Sii', do you not acknowledge the force of this in- 
strunient ? Your articles of confederation are found- 
ed upon itj and your existence as a state in the great 
union, is founded on the articles of confederation. 
It is a component part of the constitution of that 
iinionj and endowed with its power. In opposition 
to every state enactment, this power is omnipotent. 
The clause therefore, denying civil and religious 
freedom to the Jews, is expunged from your con- 
stitution. The bill now on your table gives to that 
people no new rights, it merely preserves to them 
rights which are immutably and inalienably theirs. 

Sir, if you continue to enforce this outlawed 
clause of your constitution, you rear up with the 
hand of arbitrary power, that worst of all monsters, 
a religious hierarchy. Do not the words frighten 
you? and yet they are true. ---The principles upon 
which you uphold even the pure Christian religion, 
to the exclusion of every other, are the principles 
which uphold the inquisitorial government of Spain, 
and the Episcopal hierarchy of England. The right 
to put up one religion, is the right to put down an- 
other---the right to put down one, is the right to 
put down all ; and tiie right to put down all, is the 
right to build up one upon their ruins. The right 
to build up or pull down in one particular, involves 
the right to do so in all; and you may, therefore, 
whenever you choose it, establish a Presbyterian 
church government, an Episcopalian church go- 



SPEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 155 

vci'iiment, or any other church govenimeiitj iipoii 
the ruins of every other religious society: nay, upon 
the ruins of civil government itself. 

In order to prevent these terrible consequences, 
let us vote for the bill now upon the table. Let us 
pronounce a verdict of not guilty in favour of the 
pei'secuted sons of Abraham. It will be registered 
in heaven — the recording angel will drop a tear ol 
joy, as he notes it down, and all the melody of hea- 
ven will join in hallelujahs on the event. 

Some gentlemen are angry with this bill, and will 
not vote for it, because it has taken up so much of 
the time of the house. Sir, the only way to get rid 
of this bill, is to vote for it — otherwise, it will re- 
turn upon you again ; it is invulnerable and immor- 
tal; cut oiFone head, another will rise in its stead. 
Next to the dishonour of suffering this stain upon 
our constitution, would be the ignominy we should 
suffer, should it be said, with truth, that no one in 
the legislature of Maryland could be found, bold 
and honest enough, to defend the cause of religious 
toleration. I will guarantee, that one gentleman, at 
least, will do all he can to prevent so foul a tarnish 
on our name and character. Should it please the 
caprice of the people to remove him from the coun- 
cils of the nation, or the wisdom of Providence to 
call him to a better world, I guarantee that another 
will succeed him, though he will be liMlc able to 
supplv his place. 



156 srEECH ON THE JEW BILL. 

I beg pardon of the gentleman from Wasliington 
for thus introducing him to the house. I could not 
do otherwise, because his name is identified with 
the Jew bill. You cannot think of the one without 
thinking of the other---he was an early champion 
in the cause; Atlas-like, he bore it upon his shoul- 
ders at a time when it was too heavy for all other 
men— it fell— he raised it— it fell again—he raised 
it again-'-and again. Like Sisyphus, he was com- 
pelled, alternately, to roll up the stone, and suffer 
its recoil. The enemies of religious freedom in 
Washington, withdrew from him their support, and 
he ceased to be a member of this house. Even then, 
he continued to labour in the cause. He once more 
comes into the hall of legislation, and his very first 
act is to bring the Jew bill before the house! Let 
him consummate the work---He began it, it is his 
right to end it. Let him be both Alpha and Ome- 
ga. I would pray for the stamp of immortality on 
what I have said, merely to perpetuate his glory. 



EUIiOGY^ 



ON 

JOHN ADAMS AND THOMAS JEFFHRSOIT, 

PRONOUNCED AT PENSACOLA, IN AUGUST, 1826, 
BY 

H. M. BRACKENRIDGE. 



Fellow-Citizens, 

The occasion on which we are assembled, is so 
deeply interesting to every American heart, that 
the simple annunciation would seem to preclude 
every embellishment, or amplification of oratory. 
The genius of a Cicero, or a Demosthenes, might be 
fired by the glory of such a theme---a theme as im- 
mortal as their eloquence. But alas ! your humble 
orator feels himself oppressed by sensations to which 
he has no words to give utterance. 

CKir venerated sages and statesmen, John Adams, 
and Thomas Jefferson, having reached the goal 
appointed to the race of man, now rest from their toils 
---they have fallen asleep, with a transition as mild 
and as gentle 

'* As summer evening's latest sigh, 
That shuts the rose." 



158 EULOGY 

For their departure, attended by no circumstance 
of pain, of terror, or regret, (if I nuiy say it on this 
solemn occasion,) has deprived death of his sting, 
and the grave of its victory. No, they are only 
awakened to immortality---they are awakened amid 
the loud acclaim of twelve millions of their coun- 
trymen, the witnesses of the glorious apotheosis ! 
If we may be permitted to indulge the fond imagi- 
nation, we may behold the good, the great, the wise, 
the blessed, of every nation, of every clime, *^ on a 
hill apart,'' prepared to receive the illustrious 
strangers. 



just rising into view, 



From earth's dispersing mists, to heaven's ethereal hkie." 

We may behold the translated worthies of every 
age, stretching forth their hands to the patriarchs 
of America, to the apostles of the liberties of man- 
kind, and hailing with such joy as angels feel, their 
entrance into the regions of eternal serenity and 
peace. For when we consider the circumstances 
under which our beloved fellow-citizens closed 
their long and useful lives, circumstances so pecu- 
liar and extraordinary, we are almost tempted to 
believe that we have witnessed the manifestation of 
a special Providence. On the same day, almost at 
the same hour, that day the jubilee of our liber- 
ties, these- venerable men, who led us forth from 
bondage, who guided our steps through the wilder- 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 159 

ness, having reached the utmost bound of human 
life, after fulfilling every obligation imposed by that 
being, who intrusted to them those great abilities 
for the benefit of mankind, having attained every 
thing in this transitory existence, which the good 
and wise can desire, were at last summoned to their 
*^ great reward," amid the celebrations of that day, 
which they had rendered ever memorable in the 
annals of the world ! Since the departure of the 
FATHER OF OUR COUNTRY, no cvcnt has occurrcd 
to occasion a pause so deep and solemn. But it is 
an event so replete with consolations, even to those 
whom the ties of kindred, or the attachments of 
friendship, drew around the mournful couch of their 
repose, as to heal almost at the same moment that 
the wound is inflicted on the heart. A whole na- 
tion has gone forth to testify their respect for the 
memory of two of their fellow-citizens, whose only 
power was that of wisdom, whose only authority 
was that of virtue. Every heart melts at the names 
of the SUCCESSORS of Washington, every tongue 
endeavours to pronounce their eulogy. But that 
eulogy will be no episode in the history of our na- 
tion, for their actions will constitute the very ma- 
terials of that history. If Washington be the rock 
on which our liberties are built, these are the cor- 
ner-stones of the edifice. Bear with me, then, for 
a moment, while I dwell on the virtuous actions of 
these great men, although I feel that my words 



160 EULOGY 



must be cold, compared with the warmth which 
animates vour hearts. 

To begin with the immediate successor o/Wash- 

INGTON — THE SUCCESSOR OF WASHINGTON ! In 

these few words how much more is comprised than 
can be expressed by all the studied strains of pane- 
gyric ! For great must have been his claims to the 
respect and confidence of his country, to have been 
chosen from among so many illustrious men, by whom 
it was then adorned ; to have been chosen by the 
free and impartial suffrages of an enlightened peo- 
ple, to fill the place of Washington. Perilous as 
such a situation must have been to any mortal man, 
it was yet the highest testimonial of his worth that 
his country could bestow. And that testimonial 
was well deserved. From the very commencement 
of our colonial oppressions, America looked upon 
the subject of it, as one of her boldest champions ; 
his name was already allied to liberty ; 

"Each generous Adams, Freedom's favourite pair;" 

and long before the awful struggle, he had main- 
tained by his eloquence those principles which were 
afterwards sealed by the blood of our heroic coun- 
trymen. To the historian and the biographer, we 
must leave the detail of events so worthy to go down 
to posterity for the instruction and delight of future 
ages. Suffice it to say, that when an appeal to 
arms became unavoidable, he was delegated to the 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 



161 



councils of the confederacy by the principal colony 
of the north. Here his glowing eloquence, his bold* 
and de»i4e4=cha««*toi^ soon placed him at the head 
of the orators of a body, justly eulogised by Burke 
and Chatham, as-one f)f» the most dignified and au- 
gust, that had ever been assembled. After two 
years of distressing civil war, carried on by our 
fathers in defence of those rights, which they main- 
tained as men -of English. race^^iidcJaim^d to par- 
ticipate with their brethren of England — when every 
expedient, every remonstrance, every appeal was 
resorted to in vain, to induce an infatuated minis- 
try-to -re noimce. their hated policy, our affairs at- 
tained a solemn^crisis. The attachment to England, 
the country of our common ancestry, whose history, 
whose arts, whose laws, whose genius, were ours, 
still held us by ties we knew not how to sever— 
which we could not break. But it became evident 
that we wer^ exJiausting* our- -resQjjrces, and our 
strength, without looking to any ulterior objgct-of 
adequa4£ importance. A total separation was the 
last, the painful resort ; it was like jEneas tearing 
away the bleeding branch from the trunk of his un- 
happy brother. A prospect, wide and boundless, 
was opened ; its scenes were new and untried. Even 
in that enlightened body, the first congress, elevated 
as it was above popular feeling, and contemplat- 
ing the present, and the future, with all the calm- 
ness of philosophy, and yet all the ardour and 



^te 



«i'' 



n\ 



./^ 



a,: 



21 •, 



.A 






\ 



162 EULOGY 



courage of patriotism, many a " longing, lingering 
--/.!/ / •^Spok was cast behind.'' Even when the final vote 
"*^ came to be taken on that ^ ii w i wunl ninniTm-nn t, pre- 

sented by Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, Sherman, 
^:^^^^ _ Wythe and Livingston, a iiimTiim . Qnt which traced, 



f5»^«*" 



^^ 7>«^^^ 



" Moral nature through her total plan, 
Marked all the steps of liberty and man," 

it was a-p^Trn\i.rd.,nnly hy. a mnjopi-l^y — many, still 
fondly clinging to the hope of safe and honourable 



reconciliation, were reluctant to pass the boundary, 

v^i^yx^. 'f'**^ from which there was no return. But then it was, 

that the power of the orator was lieffjuijs&d-fed-be-ptrt 

-fo*4fe=»*fe is on such occasions that eloquence is 

divine, and it was then that Adams deserved the 

• y — - thanks of his country, the applause of posterity, and 

Q , the eulogy of every succeeding age. With all the 

iUt^ *e r- jjj.g of Demosthenes, he painted the griefs of his in- 

f.eC A-// i»i«s^pointed out the dangers which threatened her 

■ff*^ * liberty— -her existence, and infused into l^i^ip-brave, ttC^ 

<;/ U t*^*^ ^^^ hesitating hearts,^he courage to pifrsue the 

^ boldest measures. Rising to a pitch of enthusiasm, 

<, /Tt^^ which the occasioii' inspired, an enthusiasm ap- 
proaching to inspiration, he unfolded the glorious 

U^ ijL^ destinies of his native land, and foretold that the 

' DAY ON WHICH AMERICA DECLARED HER INDEPEN- 

It^ /•«. — <' DENCE, would b© a day of triumph, of rejoicing, 

of exultation, through all succeeding time. And 




' ' ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 163 

most signally has that prophecy been fulfilled ; still 
more wondrous, the far-seeing statesman, after hav- 
ing lived to see the complete fulfilment of his pro- 
phecy, after having seen his beloved country during 
half a century in the onward march to greatness 
and felicity, under a government firmly consolidat- 
ed by wisdom and experience, breathed in peace 
his last in a wish for the perpetuity of its indepen- 
dence,* on the very day of the anniversary, per- 
haps at the very hour, which had been signalized 
by his prophetic eloquence. 

During the seven anxious years which succeeded 
this memorable day, while our country was more 
frequently darkened by the gloom of adversity, than 
brightened by the rays of success, Adams gave his 
individual and unwearied support to that cause, in 
which he had staked every thing dear to man. We 
find him wandering from court to court, from go- 
vernment to government, soliciting the slow and 
reluctant aid of Europe, and experiencing all the 
anxious feelings of alternate disappointment and 

* On the 4th of July, 1826, the orator of the day, Mr. 
Whitney, called on Mr. Adams, and asked him for a sen- 
timent to be delivered at the table in the afternoon. He 
said, " I will give you. Independence for ever." After a few 
moments had elapsed, a lady present asked him if he wish- 
ed to add any thing to the toast; he answered, " not a syl- 
lable." This was within an hour of his dissolution in the 
evening. 



164 EULOGY 

alternate hope. But atlength^when, in part through 
the success which crowned his mission, our victo- 
rious eagle was planted, by the arm of Washington 
and Lafayette, on the last hold of our enemy, 
when the contest was no longer doubtful, when 
the olive branch was tendered by that monarch, 
who had lost the brightest jewel of his crown, 
Adams was chosen one of the negociators of peace. 
No sooner was this happily accomplished, than he 
was selected as the Jii'St mnbassador of a new and 
independent people, the former subjects of the mo- 
narch to whom he was sent, and who had been the 
subjects of his ancestors. That the sensibilities of 
both were deeply affected at the first interview, 
was no reproach to the ambassador, and did honour 
to the character of the British king, who declared 
on the occasion, that although he was the last to 
conform to the afflicting separation, he would be the 
first to meet the friendship of our country as an in- 
dependent power. During his residence at the court 
of St. James, he used every laudable endeavour to 
heal the breach which had been made ; for although 
as a patriot the land of his nativity was the first in 
his love, yet his affection for the land of his fathers 
was not eradicated. He was impressed with a 
generous belief, that a firm friendship between two 
nations so strongly allied by nature, could not fail 
to advance the prosperity of both. These sentiments 




ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 165 

he urged to his own countrymen, with a zeal which 
rendered even his patriotism suspected, for the 
strong resentment which had been awakened in 
their breast could not be at once subdued, and it 
was ordered, perhaps for wise purposes, that the 
hearts of the British ministry should be hardened 
towards us. The time had not come, when that 
friendship which Adams so ardently desired, could 
be safely indulged. 

When that second revolution took place among 
us, which secured all the advantages of the first, the 
establishment of the present confederated govern- 
ment, Adams was called, by the voice of his fel- 
low citizens, to fill the second place in the republic. 
Precluded, by the nature of the station in which he 
was now placed, from any active share in the details 
of administration, he employed his leisure hours in 
communicating, through the press, those lessons of 
his ripened experience, and the result of those pro- 
found researches, which have rendered him one of 
the classic writers of America, and one of the most 
distinguished of the age. With a masterly hand he 
analyzed the parts of every republic which then ex- 
isted, or had come down to us through history. He 
traced out the causes of their decay, their weakness, 
or their strength, with as much ease as the most 
ingenious artist separates, or puts together, the 
various parts of the most complicated machinery. 



1 66 EULOGY 



He saw that property, especially landed property,* 
was the fountain of power in the state ; that the more 
general its distribution among the members of so- 
ciety, the less would that power become concen- 
trated in the hands of one, or of a few. It is re- 
markable, that his enlightened compatriot, of whom 
I am presently to speak, was led by his reflections, 
to the same result ; and was so fortunate, in his na- 
tive state, as to suggest a remedy, as mild and effec- 
tual, as the imperceptible renovations of nature. 
How far some of the less flattering views of the sage 
of Quincy may be unjust, let us not too hastily de- 
cide, but leave to the slow and unerring award of 
time. 

Let us follow him to more active scenes, where 
he was called to the highest responsibility, and the 
highest honours. When at length the great Wash- 
ington, like the hero of Ossian, " heard the call of 
years," and resolved to retire to private life, all 
eyes were turned to Adams as his successor. But 
alas! who could be found to lift the spear of Fingal ! 
Of those times, the various and distracting incidents, 
and their causes, must be left to the impartial his- 
torian, who, unbiassed by party feelings, shall ren- 
der justice where it is due, and pass censure where 
it is deserved. His country, even at this day, pro- 

* The doctrine of Harrington is fully unfolded in his 
"Defence," &c. 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFEKSON^ 167 

nounces with one accord, that the intentions of 
Adams could not be other than pure ; and we may 
acknowledge, without an effort of candour, that 
when the helm was confided to him, our system of 
government was yet unconfirmed by experience, 
that it had to contend with the jarring elements of 
discord, at a time when the whole world was con- 
vulsed by the fires of a volcano ; that the mighty 
name and influence of Washington, like a vast 
mound, had alone withstood the accumulating mass, 
which threatened to overwhelm his successor, who- 
ever he might be. And let us in some things antici- 
pate the tardy judgment of posterity, and dare to 
be just; let us acknowledge, that many of the se- 
verest censures of the administration of Adams, are 
to be ascribed to the excitement and errors of the 
times ; and that it was productive of fruits, rich, 
and glorious to our country. Adams is the founder 
OF OUR NAVY. He saw, at an early period, that 
should we come in conflict with other nations, it 
must be on the ocean ; our commerce, growing with 
extraordinary rapidity, would there require to be 
protected from rapacity and injustice. On that 
element have arisen our principal collisions with 
thoise nations, which have " felt power, and forgot 
right ;" but the frigates of Adams have proved the 
best expounders of the laws of nations, and the most 
eloquent advocates of the rights of neutrals. On that 
element, both France and England have felt the 



168 EULOGY 

energy of our republic — on that element, our flag 
has won its proudest honours, and now carries with 
it the renown of our gallant seamen, wherever it 
displays its variegated glories. 

If the sun of Adams retired behind a cloud, it 
soon emerged to its ^^ original brightness ;" if his 
star was dimmed at its meridian height, like that of 
Dandolo, '^ nothing ever surpassed the brilliancy of 
its setting rays." Shall we follow the sage to the 
scenes of private life? Shall we speak of his vir- 
tues? When an adventurous sophist proposed to 
pronounce a panegyric on Homer, he was rebuked, 
by the simple question, ^Mias Homer faults?" But 
the virtues of Adams are the inheritance of his coun- 
try ; their example will continue to form, to strength- 
en, to delight, to the remotest ages! His sterling 
integrity, and unblemished truth, his mild benevo- 
lence, the strength of his friendship and affections, 
his temperance rewarded by a long and illustrious 
life, his love of country, strong in death, his faith 
in a divine religion, and his resignation to the de- 
crees of Providence, these will be the subjects of 
many an aspiring strain, when the fleeting scenes 
which attract our interest to-day, shall pass away, 
and be forgotten. For classic eloquence, and nerve, 
as a writer, for accomplishments as a scholar, for 
profound acquirements as a philosophic statesman, 
he will ever be conspicuous in the temple of fame. 
In one particular, he enjoyed a rare felicity, which 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 169 

in all probability will stand a solitary exception in 
our history for the next thousand years. If, as a 
patriot, he saw with delight his country advance 
with the rapidity of fairy land, great must have 
been his gratification, as a man and a parent, to 
leave the fortunes of that country under the guidance 
of his son ; a son, whose virtues and abilities, had 
been subjected to the severest ordeal of public opi- 
nion, in the various stations which he had filled, 
and who was at length advanced to the highest of- 
fice of his country ; let not the bitterness of party 
feeling mingle in the cup of grief, or withhold the 
just tribute of respect to the chief magistrate of the 
nation, or refuse to condole with an affectionate 
son, for the loss of the best of fathers. 

The name of Adams has become inseparably unit- 
ed with that of Jefferson, the patriot, the states- 
man, the philosopher, the favourite of his country. 
Your orator feels the poverty of his language in the 
attempt to do justice to his transcendent merit. 
His mind, of ^^ vast unclouded scope," stretched its 
vision to every subject which belongs to human 
knowledge ; his philanthropy, no less expansive, em- 
braced every object of benevolence. His fame is 
confined to no age or country ; he was the friend, 
the instructer, the legislator of the human race. 
He will be named with Solon, with Socrates, with 
Plato, with Aristotle, with Bacon. Nature, kind 
and beneficent mother, has cast even among the 
22 



170 HULOGY 

most savage and barbarous tribeSj some of those su- 
perior and privileged beings, who have sketched 
the first rude laws of society, and restrained the 
fierce and destructive passions of men ; but small is 
the number of those resplendent geniuses, who in 
the enlightened periods of the world have given 
rise to new era in the improvements of human life, 
who have effected revolutions, that in the ordinary 
course of events could only be accomplished by the 
gradual progress of centuries. Such was Jeffer- 
son. The splendid state paper with which our 
political existence began, bears the impress of his 
mighty mind ; that instrument, which has become 
the ornament of our halls, the guide of our councils, 
and the first political lesson of our youth. Had this 
been the first and only production of his pen, he 
had needed nothing more to render his name im- 
mortal. ' But where is the American who has filled 
so many arduous stations, who for an equal number 
of years has been so constantly employed in the most 
important and useful public services? Where is 
the man who has so successfully united the boldest 
speculation with practical utility ? He was a lumi- 
nary even among such men as Franklin, Hancock, 
Livingston, Witherspoon, Rush, Morris, Wilson, 
Chace, M^Kean, Wythe, Paine, Walton,* Hopkin- 

* Mrs. Walton, the widow of George Walton, one of 
the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was pre- 
sent. 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 17 J 



son, Wolcott, each of whom was a ruHng star in a 
constellation of intellect and virtue. Even in the 
midst of the political tempest which swept over the 
land, we find him in his native state preparing the 
most laborious reforms, with all the calmness of Ar- 
chimedes engaged in the solution of his problem. 
He brought the whole body of the laws of Virginia 
out of chaos, and reduced them to the beautiful 
order, which they still preserve. Every thing was 
great and original in his legislation; ever boldly 
recurring to the fountains of first principles. 
Every act overturned a rooted prejudice, or gave 
a new impulse to improvement. He was the first 
who established on a legislative foundation, a com- 
plete toleration in.matters of religion, and which an- 
nihilated the union between church and state, whose 
tendency has ever been to corrupt and ruin both. 
This was itself a revolution. Let his name be uni- 
ted with that of Las Casas, as the generous advo- 
cate of the aboriginal inhabitant, who had been 
reduced by the false philosophy of Europe, in the 
scale of being, to a level with the brute. And where 
shall we find suitable expressions of praise of the 
first, the successful denouncer of the abominable 
trafiic in human flesh, which has entailed so much 
misery and disgrace on civilized and Christian men? 
The glowing terms in which he depicted the evils 
of slaveiy, proved that as a great reformer, he was 
no less bold than benevolent. In that incompara- 



172 EULOGY 

ble production., tlie Notes on Virginia, where every 
sentence is a gem, where every chapter is a volume, 
in its sterling bullion, what a treasure has he left 
us ! That volume will ever be crowned by the 
gratitude of America— of the new world, as the 
complete and triumphant vindication from the as- 
persions and the prejudices of the old. The vain and 
arrogant philosophy of Buifon, of Raynal, of Robert- 
son, was dispelled like a mist before the rising sun, 
and the glowing landscape was revealed for the 
first time to the wise man of Europe. 

As the legislator of his native state, Jeiferson 
achieved a victory over the opinions and pride of 
his fellow-citizens, which scarcely yields to that of 
Lycurgus at Sparta. He it was, who first set the 
example of that Agrarian law, which, unlike that of 
Gracchus, was effected without violence, and was 
based on the truest principles of wisdom, justice 
and humanity. Well has it been demonstrated by 
Adams, that where vast disproportionate wealth 
accumulates in families, aristocracy is inevitable. 
The downfall of Rome, and of Sparta, the lament- 
able fate of the virtuous Gracchi, and the no less 
patriotic Cleomenes, are chiefly ascribable to this 
cause. The monopoly of the landed property in a 
few hands, necessarily rendered the great majority 
of the population a plebeian mass, without stake or 
interest in society, without pride, without virtue, 
and the fit subjects of sale and barter, between cor- 



ON ADAMS AND JF.IFEUSON. 173 

ruptioii and ambition. It was this which enabled 
Sylla to oppress his country, and CsBsar to enslave 
it. Through the exertions of Jefferson, the law of 
primogeniture was abolished, and the contrivance 
of entails done away — every child was made to share 
alike in the bounty of its parent, as it ought to be 
equal in his affection. The example has been imi- 
tated by every neighbouring state ; but the time 
has not yet arrived to show the full effects of this 
admirable innovation. The career of wealth and 
honours, has been thrown open to industry and 
merit, wherever it may be found. The freshness 
and purity of society, is thus preserved by the 
continued renovation of its elements, like the par- 
ticles of air we breathe, or the drops of water in 
the running stream, at which we quench our thirst. 
Jefferson, like his compatriot Adams, was cho- 
sen to fill the first offices in the republic. After 
having been chief magistrate of Virginia, during 
the most trying scenes of the revolution, he was 
appointed one of that illustrious commission, which 
negociated the treaty of peace. He was afterwards 
our first ambassador to Paris, where the amenity of 
his manners, and the elegant accomplishments of his 
mind, rendered him the delight of every circle, 
among the most polished people of Europe. There 
his elegant classical attainments, his profound ac- 
quaintance with every thing useful in natural his- 
tory and the arts, found a theatre for display, a field 



174 EULOGY 

to expatiate. Perhaps it would not be hazarding too 
much, to say, that none of our countrymen had ever 
before appeared abroad, who combined so many ele- 
gant attainments, or who could hold so high a rank 
among the literati of that celebrated metropolis; 
and it must be admitted, that no individual has since 
done so much to elevate the character of our coun- 
try, for those qualities, which belong to a refined 
and civilized people. Princes, and titled dignitaries 
of boasted ancestry, in their own assemblies were 
eclipsed by the noble of nature. On his return to 
his country, he was chosen under the newly esta- 
blished confederacy, as the minister and organ of 
the administration of Washington. In the various 
masterly reports, called for by the duties of his de- 
partment, we view with wonder and admiration, 
the vast compass and force of his mind, which could, 
comparatively within narrow limits, collect such an 
amazing mass, by the power of compression, by sim- 
plification, and by lucid arrangement. Such is the 
report on weights and measures, that difficult pro- 
blem in natural philosophy, and the higher mathe- 
matics; the reports on the fisheries and on commerce, 
displaying a minuteness of information, a profundity 
of research, and a patience of investigation, which 
future statesmen may look upon with astonishment, 
and humility. His diplomatic correspondence has 
been the subject of universal praise. With the 
Spanish, with the French and British ministers, he 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 175 

maintained the rights and dignity of his country, 
and has given models and principles which will 
serve as the guide of all his successors. His ela- 
borate and masterly vindication of the free naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi, shows how profoundly versed 
he was in the laws of nations. As a writer, perhaps 
no one, since Bacon, has left so many admirable 
sayings, which so easily attach themselves to the 
mind, without the effort of memory, and may be con- 
sidered as the steps of reason. This is, indeed, the 
striking peculiarity of all his public and private 
writings. 

After having filled, like Adams, the office of vice 
president, he was also called to the highest station 
in the government of a free people. It would re- 
quire a volume to give the history of his adminis- 
tration. It does not suit the occasion to depict the 
excitements and angry feelings which unhappily 
distracted our republic at that period ; these must 
be left to the calm and unbiassed contemplation of 
later times. Suffice it to say, that it would be the 
height of injustice to render the leaders of the great 
parties of the day, responsible for all the impru- 
dence, and folly, and malignity of their followers. 
Perhaps impartial history may decide, that both 
Adams and Jefferson were assailed by the poisoned 
shafts of detraction ; that the partizans of both were 
alarmed by imaginary dangers, and exasperated by 
groundless recriminations. Perhaps errors of judg- 



176 



EULOGY 



ment may be pointed out, to show that the wisest 
are fallible ; that even Jefferson, under the delirium 
of party excitement, may have suffered the expe- 
diency of the hour to outweigh those truths which 
are eternal. And yet, the accusations of aristocratic 
designs, or disorganizing jacobinism, of French or 
British influence, were perhaps no more than the 
watch -words and war-cries of dissention. But these 
recriminations, so little calculated to elevate the 
character of our country, ceased to be heard the 
moment those two great nations ceased, by their 
conflicts, to convulse the world. But at that time 
Jefferson was seen rising serenely, above the tem- 
pest which surrounded him ; he seized the helm 
amid the most appalling distractions, awakened by 
his well known voice our hopes and our confidence. 
He called on his countrymen to forget the past — 
to repair to their posts, and as federalists, as 
REPUBLICANS, to dcvotc thcmselvcs to the happiness 
of their common country. The sentiment was mag- 
nanimous, and if he erred in his administration, he 
has at least prescribed a rule by which his error 
may be tried. But I will not dwell on the particu- 
lars of that administration, whose results were so 
happy, so successful, so glorious to the nation. One 
only act will I select, but sufficient in itself to ren- 
der that administration ever memorable in its annals. 
If Caesar and Pompey deserved statues and triumphs 
from their grateful countrymen, for having enlarged 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 177" 

the bounds of the empire in Europe and Asia, at 
the head of those veteran armies, which were after- 
wards the instruments to crush the liberties of Rome, 
what rewards have we reserved for Jefferson, who 
more than doubled the extent of our republic, with- 
out arms and without blood, and so far from en- 
dangering, procured for our liberties, additional 
security and strength ? Without the great Missis- 
sippi and its outlet to the sea, could we have re- 
tained the mighty states which have arisen on its 
tributary waters, or could we have prevented the 
advance of a deadly enemy into the very bowels of 
the land ? The universal consternation and dismay, 
which were felt a few years ago, at the dangers 
which threatened that portion of the republic, suf- 
ficiently proved at what a price we estimated its 
value. 

Let us contemplate the sage of Monticello in the 
retirement of private life. Become the oracle of 
his country, but unlike that of Delphi, whose shrine 
was enriched by its votaries, his abode was the scene 
of open-hearted generosity, of noble hospitality, 
and the fountain of charity and benevolence. We 
find him in this retreat, still consulted on whatever 
might tend to advance the prosperity of the repub- 
lic. We find him employing the precious remains 
of a well spent life, in fostering institutions of learn- 
ing; convinced that the torch of science must illu- 
mine the path of liberty. His house was the Mecca 
23 



178 EULOGY 

of the votary of wisdom, of the learned and ingeni- 
ous of every country. The distinguished foreigner 
who visited our shores, scarcely thought he had 
seen America, until he had seen Jefferson. His de- 
lightful conversation, his admirable equanimity of 
mind, the undeviating regularity of his life, his pa- 
triarchal age, his profound learning, the various 
and interesting scenes of which he had been a wit- 
ness, or an actor, rendered him an object, ^^ worth 
a voyage across the Atlantic," to visit. But when 
at last the fatal sisters appeared to cut short ^' the 
thin spun thread of life," he prayed that it might 
be prolonged to the "^^ great and glorious day" of 
independence ; the prayer was granted, and uttering 
his favourite quotation, *^ now, O Lord ! let thy ser- 
vant depart in peace," 

" He sunk to rest, 



With all his country's wishes blest." 

Adams and Jefferson are gone — Let us mourn 
the sad reality of their loss — let us rejoice in the 
glory of their departure — let us condole with that 
solitary and venerable man, the companion of their 
glory, Carroll, the model of the accomplished 
gentleman, the scholar, and the patriot. Washing- 
ton, Franklin, Jefferson, Adams, have passed to an- 
other, and a happier existence, but their names 
will be associated here, as the founders of a 
MIGHTY REPUBLIC. Washington, by the suffrage 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 179 

of all posterity, and of the universe, has been as- 
signed the first place ; not because he wielded the 
sword, and crowned the great work with success, 
but because his virtues as a citizen, his abilities as 
a statesman, his authority as a magistrate, his god- 
like purity and disinterestedness as a patriot, placed 
him beyond the reach of envy, of rivalry, of com- 
petition. Nor should we conclude, that because 
Adams and Jejfferson have not been seen at the head 
of legions, they were destitute of the courage and 
capacity for command ; such minds cannot be allied 
to fear, and those who ruled the destinies of na- 
tions, might have commanded armies. 

We may seek in vain through the whole range 
of history, for a parallel to the lives and deaths of 
Adams and Jefferson. It would have been remarked 
as extraordinary, if any one of our revolutionary 
worthies had departed amid the glory of this anni- 
versary ; still more, if that one had been instrumen- 
tal in bringing about the great event ; but when it 
shall be told, that both the author and the advocate 
of the declaration, so pregnant with the fate of un- 
born millions, departed on that day, after having 
lived the exact period of half a century from its 
date, it will require all the weight of cotemporary 
evidence, to place it on the records of history, and 
all the faith of posterity to give it credit. It was 
natural that the minds of both, should linger upon 
that most brilliant moment of their lives, and that 



180 EULOGY 

it should be the last spot of earthly vision to fade 
from their view; but that a secret sympathy should 
exist between their kindred spirits, calling them to 
wing their flight to the regions of immortality at the 
same moment, is a circumstance at which we must 
pause, and adore the inscrutable designs of Provi- 
dence. 

To their children, for we may now call them our 
fathers, it is a pleasing reflection, that if ever for a 
moment, the warm and sincere friendship, which 
had commenced with the morning of our liberties, 
had been clouded by the demon of party, long be- 
fore their deaths, it had been renewed into the most 
generous ardour, beyond the power of malevolence 
to interrupt. In the lives of these great men, the 
historian will delight to trace the numerous points 
of coincidence. They were both educated in the 
profession of the law, a profession, which, in a free 
country, in a government of laws, and not of men, 
when liberally pursued, deserves to be considered 
as the guardian of its liberties. Before our revolu- 
tionary contest, they had both been engaged in pre- 
paring the minds of their countrymen, for the sepa- 
ration, and with Franklin, were probably among 
the first to foresee its necessity, and to pursue a 
systematic plan for its accomplishment. As mem- 
bers of the first congress, the one from the principal 
colony of the north, the other of the south, they 
took the lead in bringing forward and sustaining 



ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 181 

the important measure : they displayed at the same 
time those characteristics^, which, according to the 
author of Anacharsis, constitute true courage — they 
knew their danger, feared it, yet encountered it 
with unshaken firmness. To both were confided 
the most important trusts abroad ; first, to negotiate 
peace and amity with the nations of Europe, and 
next, as the first representatives of our government, 
at the two principal courts; Jefferson to that of 
Paris, and Adams to that of London. They both 
filled in succession the second station in the govern- 
ment ; and were both afterwards elevated to the 
first. For many years after their retirement, they 
were both the objects of peculiar veneration to their 
countrymen. They saw, in the simple retirement of 
private citizens, those distinguished men, who had 
been the chief magistrates of a great people, and 
who had filled a station more dignified than that of 
kings. In their great age, we are reminded of the 
celebrated philosophers of Greece ; and much is to 
be ascribed to the power of that intellect, \^ich 
they preserved unimpaired, so highly cultivated, 
so habitually exercised; whose embalming influence 
almost controlled and retarded the decay of nature. 
The closing scene of their lives rendered the coin- 
cidence almost perfect. But the doom of man is 
inevitable. If virtues, and talents, and great ser- 
vices, could secure immortality on earth, our Wash- 
ington had still lived. Let us not then repine at 



183 EULOGY ON ADAMS AND JEFFERSON. 

the unvarying laws of nature, and of nature's God, 
which have created the vicissitudes of day and 
night, the changes of the seasons, and have appoint- 
ed a time for every living thing to die. Under the 
guidance of hope and faith, let us keep in view the 
celestial light, which, if steadily pursued, will con- 
duct us safely through this vale of trouble and dis- 
appointment, to the regions of happiness and im- 
mortality, where we shall meet again with those 
whom we esteemed, and loved, and venerated, on 
earth. ! illustrious names of Washington, 
Franklin, Jefferson, Adams ! delightful to every 
American ear — dear to humanity — ever living in 
the remembrance of posterity ! Cities may disap- 
pear ---empires may fall-— monuments may be crum- 
bled into dust- -but unless the light of civilization 
and science shall be extinguished, by an eternal 
night of barbarism, your fame and your honours 
shall endure for ever. 



AN ORATION 

DELIVEUED ON THE 4TH OF JULY, 1779, 

BY 

H. H. BRACKENRIDGE,' 

In the German Calvinist Churcli, Philadelphia, 

In commemoration of those who had fallen in the contest. 



It is the high reward of those who have risked 
their lives in a just and necessary war, that their 
names are sweet in the mouths of men, and every 
age shall know their actions. I am happy in hav- 
ing it in my power before this assembly, to speak 
of those who have risked their lives in the war of 
America. I know my abilities rise not to a level 
with so great a subject, but I love their memory, 
and it is my hope, that the affection which I feel, 
will be to me instead of eloquence, and give me warm 
words to advance their praises. 

I conceive it as the first honour of these men, 

* My father was chaplain of a regiment, to which he 
often preached. I have seen six of his sermons published 
in a pamphlet, but they are now lost. He accompanied 
his regiment in the battle of Brandywine. 



184 ORATION. 



that, before they engaged in the war, they saw it 
to be just and necessary. They were not the vas- 
sals of a proud chieftain, rousing them, in barbarous 
times, by the blind impulse of attachment to his fa- 
mily, or engaging them to espouse his quarrel by 
the music and entertainments of his hall. They 
were themselves the chieftains of their own cause, 
highly instructed in the nature of it, and from the 
best principles of patriotism, resolute in its defence. 
They had heard the declaration of the court and 
parliament of Great Britain, claiming the authority 
to bind them in all cases whatsoever. They had 
examined this claim, and found it to be, as to its 
foundation, groundless ; as to its nature, tyrannical ; 
and in its consequences destructive to the peace and 
happiness of both countries. On this clear appre- 
hension and decided judgment of the cause, ascer- 
tained by their own reason, and collected from the 
best writers, it was the noble purpose of their minds 
to stand forth and to assert it, at the expense of for- 
tune, and at the hazard of their lives. 

These brave men were not soldiers by profession, 
bred to arms, and from habit of military life attach- 
ed to it. They were men in the easy walks of life ; 
mechanics of the city, merchants of the counting 
house, youths engaged in literary studies, and hus- 
bandmen, peaceful cultivators of the soil. Happy 
in the sociability and converse of the town, the 
simplicity and innocence of the country village, or 



ORATION. 185 

the philosophic ease of academic leisure, and the 
sweets of rural life^, they wished not a change of 
these scenes of pleasure for the dangers and calami- 
ties of war. It was the pure love of virtue and of 
freedom, burning bright in their bosoms, that alone 
could engage them to embark in an undertaking of 
so bold and perilous a nature. 

These brave men were not unacquainted with 
the circumstances of their situation, and their un- 
prepared state of war. Not a bayonet was anvilled 
out, not a fire-arm was in their possession. No 
redoubt was cast up to secure the city, no fort was 
erected to resist invasion, no gun mounted on the 
battery, and no vessel was launched upon the 
stream. 

The power of Britain, on the other hand, was 
well known, and by the lightning of her orators, in 
a thousand writings and harangues, had been thrmvn 
in full force upon their minds. They were taught 
to believe her, (as indeed she was,) old in arts and 
in arms, and enriched with the spoils of a thousand 
victories. Embraced by the ocean as her favourite, 
her vessels floated on every sea. Abounding in 
men, her armies were in full force, her fleets were 
completely manned, her discipline was perfect, and 
the spirit of her enterprise by sea and land had 
every where crowned her with success. 

The idea of resistance to Great Britain, was in- 
deed great — but the mighty soul of the patriot 
24 



186 ORATION. 



drank it in, and like the eagle on the mountain top, 
collected magnanimity from the very prospect of 
the height from which he meant to soar : like the 
steed who swallows the distant ground with his 
fierceness, he attempts the career, and proves him- 
self upon the race. 

The patriot quits his easy independent walk of 
life, his shop, his farm, his office, and his counting 
house, and with every hope and every anxious 
thought, prepares himself for war. The materials 
of gunpowder are extracted from the earth ; the 
bayonetis anvilled out, the fire-arm is manufactured 
in the shop, the manual exercise is taught, the com- 
pany is formed in battalion, the battalion is instruct- 
ed to manoeuvre on the field, the brigade is drawn 
forth, and the standard of defiance is planted on the 
soil. 

Shall I mention the circumstances of the day when 

the sword was drawn, and the first blood was shed? 

and shall I trace the progress of the war, in the 

course of five campaigns ? The narration would 

require the space of an entire day. I can mention 

but the sum of things, and only tell you, that the 

inroad of the foe has been sustained upon the plain, 

and the forward and impetuous bands have been 

driven over the disdaining ground which they had 

measured in advance. The hill has been defended, 

and the repulsed and rallying foe has been taught 

to understand, that the valour of America was wor- 



ORATION. 187 

thy of the cause which her freemen had espoused. 
The wilderness has been surmounted in the march. 
It has been fought foot to foot, and point to point, 
in skirmishes, and night surprises, and in pitched 
battles, with alternate hope and dubious success. 
The enemy beaten in one state, has retired to a se- 
cond, and beaten in the second, has returned to 
the first ; beaten in every state, he has sought the 
water, and like a sea monster rolling to the deep, 
has washed his wounds in the brine of ocean. 
Rising from the ocean, he has sought the land, and 
advanced with slow and suspicious step upon the 
hostile territory. War is again arisen, and it has 
been fought from spring to autumn, and from 
autumn to spring, through the heat of summer 
and the inclemencies of winter, with unabated ar- 
dour and unshaken perseverance. What tract of 
our country has not been marked by the vestiges 
of war? What ground has not been cut with 
trenches ? What hill has not been covered with 
redoubts ? What plain has not been made the scene 
of the engagement ? What soil of our whole earth 
has not been sowed with ball ? 

These have been the toils of the heroes of our 
army ; but the brave men, whom we this day com- 
memorate, have added to their toils the loss of life. 
They have fallen in the contest. These of them, in 
the long and laborious march ; these, by the fever 
of the camp ; those have fallen, when advancing on 



188 ORATION. 

the enemy, they have received the bayonet in their 
breasts, or high in hope, and anxious of victory, they 
have dropt by the cannon, or the musket-ball. 

For what cause did these brave men sacrifice 
their lives? For that cause, which, in all ages, has 
engaged the hopes, the wishes, the endeavours, of 
generous men — the cause of liberty. Liberty! 
thou art indeed invaluable — the source of all that 
is good and great upon the earth ! For thee, the 
patriot of America has drawn his sword, and has 
fought, and has fallen. 

What was in our power we have done with re- 
gard to what was mortal of these men : we have paid 
them military honours; we have placed them in 
their native earth ; and it is with increasing vene- 
ration we view their tombs upon the furzy glade, 
or on the distant hill. Ask me not the names of 
these men? The muses shall tell you of them, and 
the bards shall woo them to their songs. The verse 
that shall embrace the name of one of them, shall 
become immortal. Their names will be read with 
those of Pelopidas, Epaminondas, and be registered 
among the worthies of the world. Posterity shall 
quote them for parallels, and for examples. When 
they shall desire to dress the future hero with be- 
coming praises, they will say he was as gallant and 
distinguished in his early fall as Warren ; prudent 
and intrepid as Montgomery ; faithful and generous 
as Macpherson ; he fell in the bold and resolute ad- 



ORATION. 189 

vance, like Haslet, and like Mercer; he saw the 
honour which his arms had acquired, and fainted 
in the arms of victory, like Herkimer; having gal- 
lantly repulsed the foe, he fell, covered with wounds, 
in his old age, like Wooster. 

The names of these brave men shall live, and the 
animated earth shall be sensible of praise, where 
their bodies are deposited. Hill of Boston, where 
the God of arms first kindled the patriot flame! 
Here the muses shall observe the night, and hymn 
heroic acts, and trim their lighted lamps to the 
dawn of morning; the little babbling, mystic brook, 
shall hear the melody, and stealing, with silver 
foot, shall tell it to the ocean. Hills within the 
prospect of York city, where the enemy, rejoicing 
at his early strength, adventured and fought, or 
where, refusing the engagement, he fled with pre- 
cipitation to his ships! On you, the tomb of the 
hero shall be seen, while fancy walking around, 
covers it with shades. Ground in the neighbour- 
hood of this city, where the stranger shall inquire 
the field of battle, and the citizen shall say, with 
conscious pride, as if the honour was his own, this 
is the tomb of Witherspoon; that is the ground 
where Nash fell ! Plains washed by the Ashly and 
the Cooper, and before the walls of Charleston! 
Here has the hero fallen, or rather has he risen to 
eternal honour, and his birth-place shall be immor- 
tal. His fame, like a vestal lamp, is lighted 



190 OKATION. 

up: it shall burn, with the world for its 
temple, and the fair assemblies of the 
earth shall trim it with their praise. 

Having paid that respect to the memory of our 
patriots which the annual return of this day de- 
mands, it remains, that we sooth the grief of those 
who have been deprived of a father, bereaved of a 
son, or who have lost a brother, a husband, or a 
lover, in the contest. Fathers, whose sons have of- 
fered up their lives, it is yours to recollect, that 
they were given to them for the service of their 
country. Fathers! dismiss every shade of grief— - 
receive consolation from being the progenitor of 
him who is enrolled with the heroes of his country. 
Sons ! whose heroic fathers have early left you, 
and in the conflicts of the war have mixed with de- 
parted heroes, be congratulated on the fair inheri- 
tance of fame, which you are entitled to possess. If 
it be at all lawful to array ourselves in borrowed 
honour, surely it is best drawn from those who have 
acted a distinguished part in the service of their 
country. If it be at all consistent with the senti- 
ments of philosophy and reason, to boast of lineal 
glory, surely it is most allowable in those who boast 
of it as flowing from such a source. We despise the 
uninstructed mind of that man, who shall intrude 
upon our ears, the ideas of a vain, ancestral honour : 
but we love the youth, and transfer to him the re- 
putation of his father, who, when the rich and 



ORATION. 191 

haughty citizen, shall frown upon him, as of igno- 
ble rank, shall say, " I had a father who has 

FALLEN IN THE SERVICE OF HIS COUNTRY." 

When after-time shall speak of those who have 
risen to renown, I will charge it to the golden- 
winged, and silver-tongued bards, that they recol- 
lect, and set in order, every circumstance; the 
causes of the war, early and just exertions, the toils, 
hazardous achievements, noble resolutions, unshaken 
perseverance, unabated ardour, hopes in the worst 
of times, humanity to an enemy, in the midst of 
triumphs for victory. All these, will I charge it, 
that they recollect and set in order, and give them 
bright and unsullied to the coming ages. The bards 
will hear me, and you, my countrymen, shall go 
down to posterity with exceeding honour. Your 
fame shall ascend on the current of the stream of 
time. It shall play with the breezes of the morn- 
ing. Men at rest, in the cool age of life, from the 
fury of a thousand wars, finished by their fathers, 
shall observe the spreading ensign. They shall hail 
it, as it waves, with variegated glories, and feeling 
all the warm rapture of the heart, shall give their 
plaudit from the shores. 



-WESTERM- ANTIQUITIES, 

COMMUNICATED IN A LETTER TO THOMAS JEFFERSON, 



BY 



H. M. BRACKENRIDGE, 



AND 



Read before the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia^ 1813. 



Baton Rouge, July 25, 1813. 

Sir, 

From a knowledge that research in the his- 
tory of the primitive inhabitants of America, is one 
of your favourite amusements, I take the liberty of 
making this communication. My attention to the 
subject, was first awakened on reading, when a boy, 
the observations contained in the " Notes on Vir- 
ginia," and it has become, with me, a favourite 
theme of speculation. I often visited the mound, 
and other remains of Indian antiquity, in the neigh- 
bourhood of Pittsburgh, my native town, attracted 
by a pleasing interest, of which I scarcely knew 
the cause, and afterwards read, and heard with de- 
light, whatever related to these monuments of the 
first, or rather earlier, inhabitants of my native 



WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. 193 

country. Since the year 1810 (without previously 
intending it) I have visited almost every thing of 
this kind, worthy of note on the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi; and from examination and reflection, some- 
thing like hypothesis, has taken the place of the 
vague wanderings of fancy. The following is a 
sketch of the result of those observations. 

I. Throughout, what is denominated by Volney, 
the valley of the Mississippi, there exist the traces 
of a population far beyond what this extensive and 
fertile portion of the continent, is supposed to have 
possessed: greater, perhaps, than could be supported 
of the present white inhabitants, even with the 
careful agriculture practised in the most populous 
parts of Europe. The reason of this, is to be found 
in the peculiar manners of the inhabitants by whom 
it was formerly occupied ; like those of Mexico, 
their agriculture had for its only object their own 
sustenance ; no surplus was demanded for commerce 
with foreign nations, and no part of the soil, sus- 
ceptible of culture, was devoted to pasturage ; yet, 
extensive forests filled with wild animals would still 
remain. The aggregate population of the country 
might be less, but that of particular districts much 
greater. We must, in this way, account for the 
astonishing population of the vale of Mexico, when 
first known to the Spaniards ; perhaps equal to any 
district of the same extent.* The prodigious 

* See Humboldt, Vol. II. page 127. 
25 



194 ^ AVESTERN ANTIQUITIES. 

population of Owyhee, and Otaheite, must be ac- 
counted for in the same way. There are certainly 
many districts on the Ohio and Mississippi equally 
favourable to a numerous population. When I con- 
templated the beauty and fertility of those spots, I 
could scarcely believe it possible, that they should 
never have supported a numerous population; such 
a fact would form an exception to what has usually 
occurred, in every other part of the globe. 

II. In the valley of the Mississippi, there are 
discovered the traces of two distinct races of people, 
or periods of population, one much more ancient 
than the other. The traces of the last are the most 
numerous, but mark a population less advanced in 
civilization ; in fact, they belong to the same race 
that existed in the country when the French and 
English effected their settlements on this part of 
the continent : but since the intercourse of these 
people with the whites, and their very great dimi- 
nution in numbers, many of their customs have fallen 
into disuse. It is not more than a hundred and 
twenty years, since the character of the population, 
which left the traces of the second period, under- 
went a change. The appearances of fortifications, 
of which so much has been said, and which have 
been attributed to a colony of Welch, are nothing 
more than the traces of palisadoed towns or villages. 
The first travellers mention this custom of surround- 
ing their towns with palisades; the earth was 



WESTERN ANTiqUITIES. 195 

thrown up a few feet, and pickets placed on the top 
I have seen old volumes in which they are repre- 
sented in the engravings.* The Arikara and Man= 
dan villages are still fortified in this way. The 
traces of these are exceedingly numerous in the 
western country ; I should not exaggerate if I were 
to say that jive thousand might be found. Some 
of them enclose more than a hundred acres. From 
some cause or other (and we know that there are 
enough which might sufiice to effect it,) the popu- 
lation had been greatly diminished immediate- 
ly before we became acquainted with them ; and 
yet Charlevoix mentions a town of the Mascutin 
tribe (at present incorporated with the Kickapoos,) 
containing a thousand families ! The barrows, or 
general receptacles of the dead, such as examined 
by yourself, may be classed with the palisadoed 
towns, though they are much more numerous ; they 
are in fact to be found in almost every cornfield in 
the western country. The tumuli or mounds, are 
often met with, where there is no appearance of 
palisadoed villages or fortifications, or of barrows. 
III. The first and more ancient period, is marked 
by those extraordinary tumuli or mounds. I have 
reason to believe that their antiquity is very great. 

* These are to be seen in many old volumes in the pre- 
sent library of congress, which contains the most valuable 
collection of books on America to be found in any part of 
the world. 



196 WESTERN ANTlqUITIES. 

The oldest Indians have no tradition as to their au- 
thors, or the purposes for which they were origi- 
nally intended ; yet they were formerly, I might 
almost say instinctively, in the habit of using them 
for one of the purposes for which they were at first 
designed, to wit, as places of defence. The old 
chief, Du Coin, told Mr. Rice Jones that the mounds 
in the American bottom, had been fortified by the 
Kaskaskias in their wars with the Iroquois. An old 
work by Lafitau, a Jesuit, which I met with at New 
Orleans, contains a curious plate, in which one of 
these mounds, fortified by palisades on the top, and 
large beams extending to the bottom, is assaulted by 
enemies. These tumuli as well as the fortifications, 
are to be found at the junction of all the consider- 
able rivers, in the most eligible positions for towns, 
and in the most extensive bodies of fertile land. 
Their number exceeds perhaps three thousand; the 
smallest not less than twenty feet in height, and one 
hundred in diameter at the base. Their great 
number, and the astonishing size of some of them, 
may be regarded as furnishing, with other circum- 
stances, evidence of their antiquity. I have been 
sometimes induced to think that at the period when 
those mounds were constructed, there existed on the 
Mississippi, a population as numerous as that which 
once animated the borders of the Nile, or of the 
Euphrates, or of Mexico and Peru. 

IV. The most numerous, as well as the most con- 



WESTERN ANTIQUITIES, 197 

siderable of these remains, are found precisely in 
the part of the country where the traces of a nu- 
merous population might be looked for, to wit, from 
the mouth of the Ohio (on the east side of the Mis- 
sissippi) to the Illinois river, and on the west side 
from the St. Francis to the Missouri. I am per- 
fectly satisfied that cities similar to those of ancient 
Mexico, of several hundred thousand souls, have 
existed in this part of the country. Nearly oppo- 
site St. Louis there are the traces of two such 
cities, in the distance of five miles, on the bank of 
the Cohokia, which crosses the American bottom at 
this place.* There are not less than one hundred 
mounds, in two different groups ; one of the mounds 
falls little short of the Egyptian pyramid Mycerius. 
When I examined it in 1811, I was surprised that 
this stupendous monument of antiquity should have 
been unnoticed by any traveller : I afterwards pub- 
lished an account in the newspapers at St. Louis, 
detailing its dimensions, describing its form, posi- 
tion, &c. but this, which I thought might almost be 
considered a discovery, attracted no notice : and yet 
I stated it to be eight hundred paces in circumfer- 
ence (the exact size of the pyramid of Asychis) and 
one hundred feet in height. The mounds at Grave 

* See the chapter on the Antiquities of the Valley of 
the Mississippi, in the "Views of Louisiana," by the au- 
thor of this Memoir, p. 181. Pittsburp^ edition, 1814. 



198 WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. 



Creek and Marietta are of the second or third class. 
The mounds at St. Louis, at New Madrid, and at 
the commencement of Black River, are all larger 
than those of Marietta. The following is an enu- 
meration of the most considerable mounds on the 
Mississippi and on the Ohio ; the greater part I 
examined myself with such attention as the short 
time I had to spare would permit. 

1 . At Great Creek, below Wheeling. 

2. At Pittsburgh. 

3. At Marietta. 

4. At Cincinnati. 

5. At New Madrid — one of them 350 feet dia- 
meter at the base. 

6. Bois Brule bottom, fifteen miles below St. 
Genevieve. 

7. At St. Genevieve. 

8. Mouth of the Marameck. 

9. St. Louis — one with two stages, another with 

three. 

10. Mouth of the Missouri. 

11. On the Cohokia river — in two groups. 

12. Twenty miles below — two groups also, but 
the mounds of a smaller size — on the back of a lake, 
formerly the bed of the river. 

13. Near Washington, (M. T.) 146 feet in 

height. 

14. At Baton Rouge, and on the bayou Manchac 



WESTERN ANTiqUITIES, 199 

—one of the mounds near the lake is chiefly com- 
posed of shells — the inhabitants have taken away 
great quantities of these for the purpose of making 
lime. 

15. The mound on Black River, of two stages, 
with a group around it. 

At each of these places there are groups of 
mounds ; and at each there probably once existed a 
city. On the other considerable rivers which are 
tributary to the Ohio and Mississippi, in Kentucky, 
Tennessee, state of Ohio, Indiana Territory, &c. 
they are equally numerous. But the principal city 
and centre of population was between the Ohio, 
Mississippi, Missouri, and Illinois. I have been in- 
formed, that in the plains between the Arkansa and 
St» Francis, they are numerous, and some very large. 
They resemble the Teocalli, in these important 
features, 1. In their positions the cardinal points 
are observed with considerable accuracy. 2. The 
larger mounds have several stages. 3. In every 
group there are two mounds much larger than the 
others. 4. The smaller mounds are placed around 
symmetrically. A closer examination would show 
a resemblance in other particulars. It is doubted 
by Humboldt whether advantage had not been taken 
of some natural rise, in the formation of the pyra- 
mid of Cholula ; with respect to the mound of Co- 
hokia, there can be no doubt, for it stands in the 



200 WESTERN ANTiqUITIES. 

midst of alluvium, and there is no natural hill nearer 
than two miles.* 

Such are the appearances of antiquity in the 
western country, which I consider as furnishing 
proof of an ancient and numerous population. The 
resemblance to those of New Spain would render 
probable the existence of the same arts and customs; 
perhaps of an intercourse. The distance from the 
large mound on Red river, to the nearest in New 
Spain, is not so great but that they might be con- 
sidered as living in the same country. 

From the description of the Adoratorios, as they 
are called, it appears highly probable that the 
mounds on the Mississippi were destined for the 
same purposes. Solis tells us, that every consider- 
able place had a number of them, upon which a 
kind of tower was erected, and which gave rise to 
the belief of those who first visited the coast of New 
Spain, that they had seen cities with numerous 
steeples ;t from which circumstance they bestowed 
upon it the name of their native country. The four 

* See the account of the Teocalli of New Spain, by 
Humboldt, pages 16, 41, 44, 123, 170, &c. vol. II. New 
York edition, 1811. 

t Dr. Robertson, who is disposed to lessen every thing 
American, and to treat with contempt unworthy of a phi- 
losopher, all their arts and advancement in civilization, 
attributes this to the imaginations of the Spaniards, in- 
flamed with the spirit of Quixotic adventure. 



WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. 201 

great cities to which the general name of Mexico 
was given, contained two thousand of these Adora- 
torios or Teocalli ; at the first glance this vast po- 
pulation, equal perhaps to London or Paris, appear- 
ed to be crowned with innumerable towers and 
steeples. Architecture was perhaps too much in 
its infancy to enable them to build to any great 
height ; a mound was therefore raised, and a build- 
ing erected on the top. It was in this way the 
temple of Belus at Babylon was erected, and the 
Egyptian pyramids of the second class, which are 
solid, and probably the most ancient. Besides be- 
ing places of adoration, the Teocalli also served as 
fortresses ; they were usually the last places, to 
which the inhabitants of the cities conquered by 
Cortez, resorted, after having been driven from 
every other quarter. They were enabled from the 
position, form, and the tower on the top, to defend 
themselves in these situations to great advantage. 
Placed from the bottom to the top of the mount, 
by gradations above each other, they appeared (as 
Solis in his animated style expresses it) to consti- 
tute ^^a living hill ;" and at first, judging only from 
the experience of their own wars, they fancied them- 
selves unassailable. 

From the oldest book extant, the Bible, we see 
exemplified in numerous instances, the natural pre- 
dilection for resorting to high places, for the pur- 
pose of worship ; this prevailed amongst all nations, 
26 



202 WESTERN ANTIQUITIES. 

and probably the first edifice dedicated to the Deity, 
was an elevation of earth, the next step was the 
placing a temple on it, and finally, churches and 
mosques were built with steeples. This having pre- 
vailed in all countries, may be considered as the 
dictate of nature. The most ancient temples of the 
Greeks were erected on artificial or natural eleva- 
tions of earth; at the present day, almost every part 
of Europe and Asia, exhibits these remains of tu- 
muli, the rudest, though perhaps the most lasting 
of human works.* The mausoleum generally holds 
the next place to the temple; and, what is remark- 
able, all nations in their wars have made the last 
stand in the edifices consecrated to their gods, and 
near to the tombs of their ancestors. The Jldora- 
torios of New Spain, like all works of the kind, 
answered the three purposes, of the temple, the for- 
tress, and the mausoleum. Can we entertain a doubt 
but that this was also the case with those of the 
Mississippi ? 

The antiquity of these mounds is certainly very 
great; this is not inferred from the growth of trees, 
which prove an antiquity of a few centuries, but 
from this simple reflection ; a people capable of 
works requiring so much labour, must be nume- 
rous, and if numerous, somewhat advanced in the 

* See Appendix to Volney's View of America, Clark's 
Travels in Russia, &c. 



WKSTERN ANTHQUITIES. 203 

arts ; we might therefore look for works of stone or 
brick, the traces of which would remain for at least 
eight or ten centuries. The great mound of Coho- 
kia, is evidently constructed with as much regulari- 
ty as any of the Teocalli of New Spain, and was 
doubtless cased with brick or stone, and crowned 
with buildings ; but of these no traces remain. Near 
the mound at St. Louis, there are a few decaying 
stones, but which may have been casually brought 
there. The pyramid of Papantla, in the northern 
part of the Intendency of Vera Cruz, unknown to 
the first conquerors, and discovered a few years ago, 
was still partly cased with bricks. We might be 
warranted in considering the mounds of the Missis- 
sippi more ancient than the Teocalli : a fact worthy 
of notice, although the stages are still plain in some 
of them; the gradations or steps have disappeared, 
in the course of time the rains having washed them 
off. The pieces of obsidian or flint, are found in 
great quantities near them, as is the case with the 
Teocalli. Some might be startled if I should say 
that the mound of Cohokia is as ancient as those of 
Egypt! The Mexicans possessed but imperfect tra- 
ditions of the construction of their Teocalli ; their 
traditions attribute them to the Toultees, or to the 
Olmecs, who probably migrated from the Missis- 
sippi. 

Who will pretend to speak with certainty as to 
the antiquity of America — the races of men who 



204 WESTERN Antiquities. 

have flourished and disappeared — of the thousand 
revohitions, which, like other parts of the glohe, it 
has undergone? The philosophers of Europe, with 
a narrowness and selfishness of mind, have endeav- 
oured to depreciate every thing which relates to 
it. They have called it the J\''ew World, as though 
its formation was posterior to the rest of the habita- 
ble globe. A few facts suffice to repel this idea: — 
the antiquity of her mountains, the remains of vol- 
canoes, the alluvial tracts, the wearing away of cata- 
racts, &c., and the number of primitive languages, 
greater perhaps than in all the rest of the world be- 
sides. 

The use of letters, and the discovery of the ma- 
riner's compass, the invention of gunpowder and of 
printing, have produced incalculable changes in the 
old world. I question much, whether, before those 
periods, comparatively recent, there existed, or 
could exist, nations more civilized than the Mexi- 
cans, or Peruvians. In morals, the Greeks and Ro- 
mans, in their most enlightened days, were not 
superior to the Mexicans. We are told that these 
people sacrificed human beings to their gods ! Did 
not the Romans sacrifice their unfortunate prison- 
ers to their depraved and wicked pleasures, com- 
pelling them to kill each other? Was the sacrifice 
of Ephigenia, to obtain a favourable wind, an act of 
less barbarity than the sacrifices by the Mexicans 
of their prisoners on the altar of their gods? The 



WESTERN ANTiqUITIES. 205 

Peruvians were exempt from these crimes— perhaps 
the mildest and most innocent people that ever lived, 
and in the arts as much advanced as were the ancient 
Persians or Egyptians; and not only in the arts, but 
even in the sciences. Was ever any work of the 
old world superior to the two roads from Quito to 
Cusco? 

Pardon me, sir, for troubling you with this long, 
and perhaps tiresome letter, dictated probably by 
the vanity of personally communicating my crude 
theories to one who holds so distinguished a place in 
that temple of science, which belongs to every age 
and every country. 

With sentiments of the highest respect, 
I am. Sir, 

Your most obedient. 
Humble servant, 

H. M. Brackenridge. 



LETTER 

ON THE 

CULTURE OF LIVE OAK, 

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY. 

BY 

H. M. BRACKENRIDGE. 

SL Rosa, 1st June, 1828. 

Sir, 

In compliance with your request, I now commu- 
nicate some of my ideas on the subject of the cul- 
ture of the live oak, and the mode of employing, to 
the best advantage, the public land to be reserved 
at this place. 

The live oak [quercus virens) is one of the most 
valuable timber trees our country produces, and is 
unequalled for the frames of vessels. There is no 
wood superior, if there be any equal to it, in 
strength, buoyancy and durability. It is found 
principally south of latitude 34°, along our Atlantic 
coast, but its favourite region is the southern part of 
the coast of South Carolina, Georgia, and of Florida, 
and in the latter only it is now found in sufficient 
quantities to be worth the attention of the govern- 
ment. Michaud, the botanist, is of opinion, that, 



CULTURE OF LIVE OAK. 207 

in the course of fifty or sixty years, this valuable 
timber tree will entirely disappear, on account of 
the greatness of the demand for it, and the limited 
quantity to be found. The live oak tree at a dis- 
tance, has the appearance of a large apple, or pear 
tree; its spreading and picturesque top, and deli- 
cate olive-shaped leaves, of a deep shining green, 
render it extremely beautiful. It is one of the most 
magnificent and delightful shade trees in the world, 
but it is not found in continuous forests of any ex- 
tent, like other species of the oak. It loves solitary 
and detached situations ; it requires a free circula- 
tion of air, and must have ample space to extend 
its prodigious horizontal branches. One of these 
branches which I measured some years ago, I found 
seventy-five feet in length, and the extremity was 
so low, that I could reach it from the ground. From 
this peculiar habit, it rarely attains its JTull size any 
where except on the margins of rivers, on the shores 
of the bays and sounds, and on the edges of the open 
ponds, seldom extending any distance back, which 
I consider entirely owing to the being crowded by 
other trees, and consequently to the want of proper 
space ; for there are instances of beautiful groves 
of twenty or thirty acres, on the coast of Georgia, 
where they have been nursed with care, and allow- 
ed sufficient room to spread. Twenty or thirty 
trees to an acre are as many as ought to be allow- 
ed to remain, in order to come to full perfection, 



208 CULTURE OF 

although they might be permitted to grow closer 
together, for some purposes ; but in order to form 
those curious and valuable crooks, so much esteem- 
ed for knees or fettocks, and other timbers of vessels, 
it is necessary that they should be permitted to ex- 
pand as much as possible. For beams, stems, stern 
posts, transoms, top timber, and bow timber, it will 
be an advantage to grow somewhat closer in order 
to form longer and larger bodies. But a vessel 
would require three or four hundred of the smaller 
pieces, and of the others but a limited number ; for 
each ship but one stem and stern post is required, 
although these are generally in two pieces. The 
live oak is naturally inclined to spread, as is in fact 
the case with most trees growing in a deep, loose, 
sandy soil; while in a rich and firm loam, they 
shoot up into tall and vigorous stems with short 
lateral branches. It is on account of its requiring 
so much space, that in the natural forests, these 
trees are rarely met with in groves of more than 
fifty or a hundred trees, and that usually on some 
narrow point of land, with an open space, or water, 
on each side. 

When the live oak is cut down, it is not neces- 
sarily destroyed; that is, the stump does not rot or 
die; and even where the'roots are dug up (and I am 
told they are the most valuable part of the tree) 
like the chesnut or locust, the roots that remain in 
the ground, or the stump of the tree, send up vigor- 



LIVE OAK. 209 



ous shoots of such rapid growth as to form large 
trees in a third of the time which was required by 
the parent stem. Under favourable circumstances, 
fifty or sixty years from the acorn, I should think 
sufiicient for live oak to attain its growth. Some 
of the finest trees I have seen, are found on the 
ruins of the old forts and villages in the Tallahassee 
country, frequently growing out of masses of bricks; 
and as those settlements were destroyed in 1706, 
we may fix with certainty the longest period which 
it required for them to attain their present enor- 
mous magnitude. These have evidently been in 
a state of decay for half a century, owing to the 
close forests of other trees which have grown up 
around and overtopped them. They at first, no 
doubt, occupied open spaces, and to all appearance, 
must have attained their present size in fifty or 
sixty years. The live oak being an evergreen, 
does not, like others, show its age by the concentric 
circles, for it grows in winter as well as in sum- 
mer. I should think, that a tree of fifty years old 
from the acorn, ought to be fit for most uses in ship 
building — although after it attains a certain size, in 
a shorter period, its progress is more slow, if de- 
prived of the necessary space and air. I have ex- 
amined a tree, growing in a yard near Pensacola, 
the trunk of which is now at least^'two feet in di- 
ameter ; and w^hich the owner told me was so small 
twenty years ago, that he bent the two principal 
27 



210 CULTURE OF 



limbs with his hands, and fixed them with stakes, so 
as to give them a particular inclination. In the 
neighbourhood of Charleston I have seen noble trees, 
which I was told had been planted since the revo- 
lutionary war. A number of young live oaks, which 
I found growing around the spot where I built my 
house, have increased at least one-third in size with- 
in six years, from being carefully pruned and freed 
from the encroachment of other trees. I can there- 
fore speak with confidence derived from experience, 
on the advantage of nursing those which we find 
already set by the hand of nature, for they often 
have the advantage of a root a hundred or perhaps 
five hundred years old. In the neighbourhood of a 
live oak grove there are always thickets of young 
plants which have sprung from the acorn, or from 
the roots of trees cut down, or gone to decay — 
these thickets are so close as to form impervious 
hedges, and it is to such places I should look for 
plants to set out elsewhere, or to thin out and cul- 
tivate those already growing. The only use in 
planting acorns is to form nurseries, and here are 
natural nurseries of millions of young trees, from 
five to fifteen years old. 

I am acquainted with no forest tree that im- 
proves more rapidly by attention and care than the 
live oak; and those which have been nursed for 
shade are universally.found more valuable than those 
which grow spontaneously, particularly as to the 



•LIVE OAK. 211 



soundness of the timber, owing principally to their 
roots being kept clear from bark or litter, which 
have a tendency to cause rotten places at the foot 
of the tree, or to afford material for the fires, which 
occasionally pass through the woods. The prun- 
ing the lower limbs, also, when they have a ten- 
dency to decay, must contribute much to preserve 
the trunk sound, and in the young ones this opera- 
tion is indispensable where it is desirable that the 
trunk shall not be low, the live oak being naturally 
inclined to form very short trunks, in length not 
more than six or eight feet, before it is lost in large 
branches. In fact, by proper pruning, the tree 
would be made to assume almost any shape, and 
crooks, and smaller pieces might frequently be 
lopped off without any material injury to it. An 
old Spanish ship-carpenter, who had not been 
at this spot for ten or fifteen years, expressed his 
astonishment to me the other day, at the appearance 
of the large live oaks here, which, he told me, 
within his recollection had almost been stripped 
naked of limbs for crooks, but they had since form- 
ed others of such a size as scarcely to show where 
they had been cut. The dead trunk of a live oak, 
will stand half a century without decay; and the 
place where a limb has been cut off, will look per- 
fectly sound for years— in fact, the wood appears al- 
most incorruptible. In situations not favourable to 
the growth of the tree, it will no doubt remain a 



212 CULTURE OJ 



long time without making much progress; moist 
situations, in general, suit it best— some of the finest 
I have seen, grew on the edge of ponds, where their 
roots must have been continually in water ; and even 
where they grow on high situations, I have found, 
in digging wells, that their roots had penetrated 
some twenty or thirty feet in pursuit of moisture. 

Having given this brief sketch of the natural his- 
tory of the live oak, I shall proceed to the subject 
to which you have been pleased to call my attention. 

This point, or tongue of land, is certainly the most 
advantageous that could possibly be selected, for the 
purpose of making a fair experiment of the cultiva- 
tion or preservation of the live oak. The weight of 
the wood is so great, that it will not bear land tran- 
sportation, but for very short distances; the planta- 
tion ought, therefore, to be near the coast, and 
being in the immediate vicinity of the navy yard, 
the value and adaptation of almost every tree, can 
be known ; on this narrow peninsula, the land tran- 
sportation need not exceed three-quarters of a mile. 
At present, live oak has to be culled and collected 
from a variety of places, at a multiplied cost, where- 
as, by having a large plantation, every kind of tim- 
ber might be met with in a small space ; and this 
spot, being so completely detached and without in- 
habitants, will be readily placed under the com- 
plete control of the government. For at least fifteen 
miles, to Williams's creek, it is, in spots of several 



LIVE OAK. 213 



hundred acres, already thickly set with young live 
oak, as well as occasional groves of fine trees ; and 
there are many tracts of five hundred or a thousand 
acres of low, open, and moist pine woods, and sa- 
vannas, where the experiment of planting may be 
made at small expense ; for they will neither require 
enclosing, nor clearing. This point, also, abounds 
with a very valuable yellow pine, remarkable for 
the fineness of its grain, and freedom from sap, and 
which would be valuable for beams and other pur- 
poses in ship building. 

The first consideration, and that which should 
precede every other, is the expenditure, in the pro- 
posed undertaking, and the advantage, either im- 
mediately or remotely, to be derived from that 
expenditure; for although it be a national Q\)\tQ,t, 
to have in store the best materials for the construc- 
tion of our ships of war, yet that object, important 
as it is, may be attained at too great an expenditure 
of the public money. In this situation, I think, how- 
ever, it will be found not to exceed that which 
would be fully justified, even considering it only as 
an experiment, but an experiment worthy of an 
enlightened nation, in a matter of the highest impor- 
tance, and that consistently with the strictest atten- 
tion to economy. Great Britain, a century ago, 
began to find serious difficulty in procuring a suffi- 
cient supply of the navy oak, (a kind, I am inform- 
ed, resembling our post oak,) when those plantations 



214 CULTURE OF 

were suggested, and eiFected, by a private gentle- 
man, (Evelyn,) consisting of many millions of trees, 
which at this day, form an ample, and permanent, 
supply of a very valuable timber. But the navy oak 
is admitted to be greatly inferior to our live oak; 
a plant, which seems no where else to be found, ex- 
cepting on our coast; as if to indicate the element 
on which our countrymen are destined to surpass 
every other people in enterprise and skill. The 
practice of forming private plantations, was at that 
period generally introduced, and at this day con- 
stitutes one of the most important items, in estimat- 
ing the value of landed estate in England. In that 
country, where the value of every thing is reduced 
to exact calculation, a person can obtain the pre- 
sent value of his plantation of oaks, formed upon an 
estimate of their value, some twenty-five or thirty 
years hence.* This calculation is made on the prin- 

* The investment of capital for the purpose of accumula- 
tion merely, is but little known in this country; and in Eng- 
land, it was not much before the reign of queen Ann, 
that it was well understood. The idea that the capital 
thus employed remained dead and unavailable, was the 
reason why people did not choose to invest their money 
in this wayj but since it can be transferred from hand to 
hand, like other stock, the objection is in a great measure 
removed. The comparative estimate of the accumulation 
of money, and that from plantations, may be seen from 
the following; arithmetical criteria: 

"-" Interest. 

S2 at simple interest of 6 per cent, would yield 

at the expiration of twenty-five years, S3 00 



LIVE OAK. 215 

ciple of annuities, and without going into details, I 
will assume it as proved, that a tree which will be 

Funded in 6 per cent, stock at par, incorpo- 
rating the half yearly dividends for the 
same term of twenty-five years, would 
yield, : - - - 6 76f 

This is merely the progressive compound 

interest every six months. 

Invested in plantations so as to produce at 
the expiration of twenty-five years, an ag- 
gregate of twenty-five dollars, would be 
in the following ratio : 

Equal to compound interest every six 
months for twenty-five years, at 17 per 
cent. 

Equal to 6 per cent, bought at par, in a ra- 
tio of accumulation of interest every six 
months, for seventy years. 

Equal to one hundred and ninety-one years 
eight months, of simple interest, at 6 per 
cent. 

Comparative Results. 

Investment, ut supra, - - S25 00 

By the operation of funding every six 

months, - . . ge 76| 

Nucleus, or original stock, - 2 00 

8 76| 



Leaving a result in favour of such invest- 
ment of gl6 23i 
Or nearly 200 per cent, more than by funding, which 



215 CULTURE OF 

worth twenty dollars, at the distance of twenty-five 
years from this day, ought not to be worth more, at 
present, than two dollars ; that sum then would be 
the highest price that could be obtained for a planta- 
tion already established, and in a flourishing condi- 
tion. Although considered as a national object, a 
different estimate might be made, from that which 
would govern individual transactions, where the 
interest of money would be the ruling considera- 
tion, yet there ought to be some standard by which 
to estimate the expense, so that the live oak, how- 
could only be practicable on a scale, when the half yearly 
dividends would be of a sufficient amount to reinvest, and 
supposing the stock not to be susceptible of change. Such 
a state of things, is, however, altogether unknown to what 
is technically called the monied interest, and is merely 
stated as a pro-forma hypothesis. Very different is the 
reality; all stocks are liable to continual fluctuation, and 
each reinvestment would require the intervention of a 
broker, or agent, whose commissions would absorb a con- 
siderable share of the re-duplication of interest. Of late 
years, pecuniary capital, from its comparative great abun- 
dance, competition in the monied market, and numerous 
other concurring causes, has been less and less productive. 
The United States 6 per cent, are now at 102f. From 
these data, it will readily be conceded that such an invest- 
ment would exceed the closest operation of funding in a 
ratio of 225 pr. ct. at the minimum. Upon the system of 
what are called annuities in fee simple, such an investment 
would be equivalent to 150 years purchase. 



LIVE OAK. 217 

A. 



ever important and necessary, should not be ob- 
tained at a price greatly exceeding its value. In 
addition to present cost, an annual allowance should 
be made, until the tree becomes lit for use, but in 
the whole, to keep within its value at that pe- 
riod. 

Thus, ten thousand trees, at the average value of 
twenty dollars, (which I do not think out of the 
way, as the wood is worth a dollar a cubic foot at 
the navy yard,) fifty years hence, when fit for use, 
would be worth two hundred thousand dollars, and 
the present cost ought not to exceed one dollar each, 
or ten thousand dollars — but this is supposing the 
longest time, before they would be fit for use, and 
and it is supposing that the price of all kinds of tim- 
ber, and this especially, will not be greatly enhanced 
by the alterations in our country, as well as from a 
greater scarcity. Here then is the maximum of pre- 
sent expenditure, and if that expense exceeds a dol- 
lar a tree, on the estimate of. fifty years, or two 
dollars, supposing them fit for use in twenty-five, 
which v^'ould amount to twenty dollars — unless it be 
on a small scale for mere experiment, I would not 
advise the government to undertake it. But, on the 
plan which I suggest, it will be seen, that the ex- 
pense falls far below that amount. 

I would endeavour, in the first place, to combine, 
as far as practicable, immediate advantage with fu- 
ture benefit; present d^nii certain benefit, with mat= 
28 



218 CULTURE OF 



ter of experiment, however promising. The first 
thing, therefore, would be to take care of the trees 
already planted by the hand of nature, and, by 
proper pains and attention, accelerate and improve 
their growth. In the next place, to plant trees of 
the largest size, that will bear transplanting, in situa- 
tions the most favourable, and where their culture 
will be attended with the least exipense. This point, 
where I reside, may contain about four thousand 
acres, and until we reach the open, grassy woods of 
long-leafed pine, the whole, or nearly the whole, is 
already thickly set with live oaks of every size, and 
will require no planting ; but they are intermixed 
with short-leafed, or old field pine, with a variety 
of shrubs, and water-oaks, rendering the whole an 
impassable jungle. Within this tract, (to which I 
would recommend that the first operations should 
be in a great measure confined,) there may be found 
about four hundred full grown trees, fit for any 
purposes of shipbuilding, andabout/owr thousand 
thrifty young trees, from four to twelve inches in 
diameter, which, with proper care, may be fit for 
use in ten or fifteen years. The attention and expense 
bestowed upon these, cannot be considered as expe- 
riment—the benefit would be certain. But the prin- 
cipal operation, and which would not be as certain as 
the last, although much more so than planting, would 
be to clear out a given number, say ten thousand 
young trees, having the advantage of old roots, of two 



LIVE OAK. 219 

inches and upwards in diameter. I think the clear- 
ing away a few yards round each tree, would suffice 
to give room and air, and in addition, the open- 
ing wide avenues for the latter purpose would be 
adviseable ; this opinion is derived from observing 
the effect of the military road, where the young 
live oaks on each side, have doubled the growth of 
those some distance off. The full grown trees would 
acquire some little attention also ; I would cut away 
all the pines, water-oaks and hickories around them, 
which would produce a large quantity of firewood, 
that might be cut up afterwards for the supply of 
the navy yard. I think I would even recommend 
the cutting down some of those trees which have 
attained such a size as not to promise much increase ; 
the timber being cut to mould, and transported to 
the navy yard, might be preserved in sheds for a 
hundred years, without any other inconvenience 
than that of becoming so hard as to break the tools 
of workmen. I would recommend this plan gene- 
rally for all the live oak on the sound, the Choctaw- 
hatchy Bay, and other places convenient to the yard 
---but this might be done at any time, and is only 
suggested for this reason, that if the natural stems 
were cut away, the young sprouts might be nursed 
into fine trees in a shorter time than by any other 
mode j at least, the accumulation of bark and trash 
about their roots ought to be cleared away. There 
are some truly noble live oaks on this point, which 



220 CULTURE OF 

are well deserving of some attention. As to the 
plantations, I would be content the first year with 
setting out a few thousand trees in the open savan- 
nas, immediately above the tract of which I have 
been speaking, and if they will readily take root, 
these plantations would have many advantages; there 
would be less trouble in keeping down other growth, 
there being nothing but grass and scattering pines, 
and the pine once cut dov/n never sprouts. These 
first plantations I would at first regard as entirely 
experimental, and to be made with much care. 
The proper season and the best mode of transplant- 
ing evergreens is not well known; by planting at dif- 
ferent times and in different ways they would soon 
be ascertained. It will be entirely unnecessary to 
grub or clear the ground, or enclose it, as was done 
in the small experiment at the navy yard. The 
wild grass should be cut away a few yards around 
the plant ; the grass is easily killed, and its destruc- 
tion in the immediate vicinity of the tree, will be 
a great defence from the fires, the only thing to be 
much dreaded. I have watched with a good deal 
of interest the plantations of live oak on the public 
square in Pensacola — but three of the trees have 
taken root, but these are growing handsomely. I 
found on inquiry, that the corporation had given a 
dollar a piece for handsome young trees, ten or 
twelve feet high, but they were taken up with very 
little root, planted too deep in the ground, and 



LIVE OAK. 221 

were never watered. Those planted at the Can- 
tonment have all taken root, and are flourishing, 
while those at the navy yard have shared the fate 
of those at Pensacola. 

With ten labourers I would engage to clear out 
ten thousand of the youngest trees, in the manner I 
propose, in one year, and plant from one to three 
thousand^ so that five hands would suffice, not only 
to take care of them during the succeeding years, 
but to make annual additions of from one thousand 
to five thousand. But in order to clear and prune 
the four hundred full grown trees, and the four 
thousand half grown, it would require the aid of 
ten additional labourers for one year. My plan of 
operation, it will be seen, for the first year, is en- 
tirely confined to the/owr or jive tliousand acres m 
this im?7iediate viciiiity, and perhaps a few miles in 
the open pine woods. In the course of two or three 
years, after seeing the success of the present under- 
taking, other subordinate establishments might be 
made between this and Williams' creek, at two or 
three of the principal natural groves of live oaky 
where the full grown trees, the half grown and the 
young ones may be treated in the same way, and 
adjacent plantations formed. Two or three poor 
families would be glad to settle at Twitchell's, Al- 
lis', and Williams' Hammocks, where there is some 
land cleared, and they would be useful to keep the 
fires out of the woods ; a very small compensation 



222 CULTUHE OF 

would satisfy them, as they could be engaged as 
labourers. Persons passing and repassing in boats 
along the Sound, to ascend the Choctawhatchy 
river, after encamping, leave their fires burning, 
which communicate with the grassy savannas, and 
every few years, in very dry weather, and when 
the leaves have accumulated, it penetrates into the 
thick woods, doing much injury. A few poor In- 
dian families, also, have made this their hunting 
ground, but there would be no difficulty in keep- 
ing them away. 

My estimate of the expense of the first year 
would be as follows : 

For 20 labourers for one year, at Sl5 a 
month, 300 working days, - - 84,000 

For rations, &c. - - - 1,000 

Cart, oxen, boat and tools, - - 300 



85,300 
Salary of superintendent, - 700 

Overseer, _ , . 500 



86,500 
A few hundred dollars would be required in ad- 
dition, for quarters, store houses, and other tempo- 
rary buildings. But I would not recommend an 
expenditure of more than ten thousand dollars at 
the outside, until the reports and opinions of per- 
sons in whom the government place full confidence 



LIVE OAK. 



223 



shall have given satisfactory assurance of at least 
fair prospects of success, in the further prosecution 
of the experiment. If ten labourers only be allowed, 
it will be recollected that the expense will not be 
reduced in proportion ; the saving would only be 
in their wages and rations ; and I would recommend 
even continuing the ten labourers the second year, 
but after that, with occasional assistance, five would 
suffice. It would probably take several years to 
make a fair trial, particularly in the transplanted 
trees. According to my estimate, the present 
value of the four hundred full grown trees, would 
be eight thousand dollars, and of the four thousand 
trees, half grown, at five dollars, twenty thousand 
dollars ; several thousand cords of fire-wood could 
at the same time be obtained, with a little addi- 
tional expense. Ten thousand dollars would be 
money safely expended for national objects like 
this, so far as they have a present or a certain value. * 

* The author was authorized by Mr. Southard, in pur- 
suance of the plan here proposed, to appoint an overseer, 
and employ twenty hands. This was accordingly done, 
and the work commenced last February. Two quarterly 
returns have been made, and much greater progress has 
been exhibited than was expected^ upwards oi forty thou- 
sand trees have been cleared and pruned. They have been 
classed according to their sizes, in the following manner: 



Full grown trees. 


Six inches and 
over. 


Between '2 and 
6 incites. 


Two and under. 


Total. 


40 


977 


15,666 


5,629 


22,312 



224 CULTURE OF 

Some legislation mighty perhaps, be necessary to 
declare the tract of land a reserve for this purpose, 
and in order to prevent depredations. This point 
has been a kind of common, for many years, where 
persons came to cut wood to sell for the use of the 
town, and for the navy and army. Perhaps a sim- 
ple notice in the public newspapers, forewarning all 
such persons, with strict instructions to the District 
Attorney and the Navy Agent, to prosecute all 
trespassers, may be found to answer every purpose. 
A penalty on persons setting fire to the woods would, 
however, be very useful. 

I have thus given a hasty outline of my plan, and 

— 1 _ 

This is the return of the last quarter. About six miles 
of avenue, or roads, to protect from fires, have been open- 
ed thirty feet wide, and about six or eight acres grubbed . 
and enclosed for the purpose of commencing a nursery 
from the acorn. It is expected that about sixty thousand 
trees will be cleared and pruned within the course of the 
year. The expense will amount to about six thousand 
dollars, which is much below the estimate. It is hoped 
that this will be taken as a model for similar plantations 
in East Florida and Georgia, whence the transportation 
of the timber will be more easy than from the gulf of 
Mexico. The government about thirty years ago, pur- 
chased some of the islands on the coast of Georgia for 
the sake of the timber; there is no doubt they could be 
converted into valuable plantations. I shall feel proud of 
being instrumental in a work of such vast national im- 
portance, as that of securing a permanent supply of the 
only kind of timber fit for ships of war. 



LIVE OAK» 225 

it will afford me great satisfaction to attend to any 
further suggestions on this interesting subject. 

I remain^ with sentiments of respect;, 

Your most obedient servant, 

[Signed] H. M. Brackenridge. 

Hon. Samuel L. Southard, 

Secretary of the JYavy United States. 



29 



REPORT 

ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL 
OF BAI.TZ3M0RI:, 

On the Subject of the Defence^ <^c.* 



Your committee are of opinion, that there are 
in the affairs of nations, of cities, and communities, 
certain important era, which naturally call for some 
commemorative institution. When a people have 
been rescued from the grasp of despotism, when 
their condition has been ameliorated by some mo- 
mentous revolution, or when, through the interven- 
tion of a benign Providence, they have escaped 
some heavy impending calamity, the human mind, 
in all ages, has sought, as well to record those events 
with indelible characters on the page of history, as 
to keep them continually in view by monumental 
remembrances. The arts of sculpture, architecture, 
and painting, have been used for the noblest purposes, 
when thus employed. By their means, the objects 

* This was drawn up by me at the request of one of 
the committee. 



REPORT. 227 

intended to be commemorated, are placed in the 
most lively and impressive manner, before the eyes 
of thousands, who may not have the time, or op- 
portunity, to consult the volume of history, while 
they produce a more deep and lasting impression 
on the minds of those who are more fortunate. To 
our youth, they furnish the most solemn lessons, at 
the same time kindling in their breast, a noble de- 
sire to emulate the great examples of their country. 

A brief review of that memorable epoch in the 
history of our city, when all America trembled for 
her fate, will prove how well it deserves to be 
placed continually before our eyes. Never can we 
regard it with indiiference, while memory holds 
her seat, or while we continue to honour the brave 
citizens, who bled, or died, in the defence of Bal- 
timore. 

Our country had been filled with anguish, aston- 
ishment and dismay, in consequence of the success- 
ful attack on the capital of the nation ; we forgot, 
for a moment, that it was but a straggling village, 
defended by an inadequate force, hastily drawn to- 
gether, fatigued and worn down by extraordinary 
exertions ; and the success of the enemy was felt as 
if a vital blow had been struck at our national exist- 
ence. It was discovered, that our foes had thrown 
aside every restraint of civilized warfare, and were 
ready to commit the most cruel and barbarous out- 
rages. This was unequivocally displayed, in the 



228 REPORT. 

wanton destruction of private property, and in the 
mutilation of the noblest monuments of the arts our 
infant country had produced. In their hasty retreat 
from the conflagration at Washington, it was easily 
seen that Baltimore was their next object of attack. 
And when the name of that hero and statesman, 
whose illustrious example is no longer the exclusive 
right of any portion of the globe, but belongs equal- 
ly to the whole human race, could not even com- 
mand a respect for the usages of civilized war, what 
was to be expected by Baltimore, the peculiar ob- 
ject of their hate, and the most tempting prize to 
their rapacity? 

The return of our fellow citizens from the un- 
successful attempt to defend the unfortunate capital, 
brought to us the afflicting account which spread a 
gloomy panic over our city, now thought to be al- 
ready in the deadly grasp of her unsparing enemy. 
It is not to be wondered at that the first sensations 
experienced on this awful occasion, were those of 
despondency. A powerful fleet and a veteran army, 
urged on by the prospect of booty, were every mo- 
ment expected to make their appearance before our 
city, at that moment in a condition almost defence- 
less. In this state of the public mind, appalled, as 
it were, by terrors, from which there appeared no 
possible escape— our citizens determined on de- 
fence : each endeavoured to dispel the feelings of 
despondency, by the example of his own resolution ; 



REPORT. 229 

new energy was inspired, and we were taught, that 
a people contending in defence of their families and 
their homes, ought never to despair ! The period 
of despondency was not of long duration — it soon 
yielded to the busy and anxious note of dreadful 
preparation. Ignoble and coward thoughts vanish- 
ed from every mind, and each one, with alacrity, 
took the post assigned him. 

Much was to be done, in order to place a large, 
open town, in a situation to be defended by inex- 
perienced militia. Excepting the fort which de- 
fended the entrance to the harbour, this city, which 
had grown up in an interval of peace, was without 
a single military work. What an interesting specta- 
cle did she exhibit, in the sudden transition of the 
employments of her industrious inhabitants, from 
the avocations of peaceful life, to the turbulent 
scenes of war! The merchant, the mechanic, the 
professional man, were seen labouring together in 
the same trench, moving the same piece of artille- 
ry, or exposed to the most inclement weather, and 
performing the duty of v^.terans. Such was the 
scene which Baltimore exhibited, previously to the 
powerful attack by the forces of Great Britain. We 
behold a peaceful city, on a sudden, transformed 
into a martial camp; its population throwing off 
their civic habits, and feeling all at once the ardour 
of the patriot soldier of Greece or Rome. We be- 
hold friends, and neighbours, brothers, and even 



230 REPORT. 



father and son, aged men and boys, with scarcely 
sufficient strength to wield a fire-arm, mingled in 
the same company ; uniting in the defence of all 
that is dear to the human heart. Notwithstanding 
this determined attitude, which Baltimore assumed, 
the contest was yet regarded as most doubtful ; its 
probable result was indeed against her. Assailed 
by laix ],.j?ind sea, by so powerful a force, to contend 
with troops flushed with recent victory, under per- 
fect discipline, and impelled by the hope of obtain- 
ing a rich booty, with preparations for defence 
made in so much haste, had she taken a moment to 
weigh the chances of war, her situation must have 
appeared desperate indeed. The defence thus re- 
solved upon, under circumstances so discouraging, 
cannot but heighten the merit of success. 

Scarcely had there been time allowed even for 
these hasty preparations for the reception of the 
enemy, when, on the 11th of September, 1814, he 
made his appearance at the mouth of the Patapsco, 
with a fleet of ships of war, and transports, amount- 
ing to fifty sail, besides a greater number of smaller 
vessels. On the same day, the land forces, to the 
number of at least seven thousand men, the veterans 
of Wellington, debarked at North Point, and on 
the day following advanced towards our city. The 
Baltimore brigade, composed of citizens of the 
place, claimed the honour of being the first to meet 
the invader, and check his insolent march : they 



REPORT. 231 



accordingly went forth to give him a foretaste of the 
manner and spirit with which he might expect to he 
received. The enemy was unexpectedly met by an 
advanced party of the brigade, and in a skirmish 
which ensued, their commander in chief, general 
Ross, was killed. At first, disconcerted, then ex- 
asperated by this signal misfortune, they rushed for- 
ward under the orders of their next in co.amand, 
to revenge the death of their leader. The brigade, 
although no more than fourteen hundred strong, re- 
ceived with coolness the onset of a force so superior 
in numbers and discipline ; they maintained a brave 
fight against the formidable invaders, holding their 
ground until the enemy approached within twenty 
paces, when they were commanded to retire to the 
post assigned them, in the general line of defence. 
Many of our most worthy, and now lamented fel- 
low citizens, on that day offered up their lives, as 
a sacrifice, on the altar of their country, for the 
protection of our fire-sides, and to secure to us that 
safety and prosperity which we now enjoy. Shall 
these brave men ever be forgotten by us ? Shall we 
prove ourselves ungrateful by neglecting to pay due 
honours to their memories? Or rather, what ho- 
nours can our gratitude devise, commensurate with 
the debt we owe them? One hundred and sixty, 
nearly one-eighth of the force engaged, bled on that 
occasion ! Here was no summer parade of patriot- 
ism — the immediate consequences of this battle were 



232 REPORT, 

of great importance. It seemed to check the pro- 
gress of the British army, and to prove to them 
that a resistance was to be expected very different 
from that which was represented to their imagina- 
tions. Their accounts of the engagement show its 
importance in their estimation. Our force was mag- 
nified by them into an army of six thousand men, 
and their bulletins vauntingly announced, that ^"^one 
thousand had been put liors de comhat.^^ Theirs, 
according to their own acknowledgment, greatly 
exceeded ours, and most probably was double the 
number : so that when we add to this the loss of 
their commander, they could boast of but a barren 
triumph. For us, it was followed by all the substan- 
tial advantages of a victory ; it infused new courage, 
and confidence, into our citizen soldiers, too much 
disposed to magnify the prowess of the foe ; the ad- 
venturous chief was no more; the invincibles of 
Wellington had been withstood by militia. The 
effect of this affair, embraced a still more expanded, 
and expanding circle — and diffused itself over the 
nation. 

The enemy, thus repulsed, deemed it necessary 
to approach with caution, intrenchments lined with 
freemen, engaged in the sacred cause of their homes 
and fire- sides, and soon deemed it prudent to retire 
to his ships. But our city was simultaneously, and 
even more seriously, threatened from another quar- 
ter. The success of our fellow citizens on the land 



UEl'ORT. 233 

side, would have been vain, but for the unexampled 
defence of fort M'Henry, which protected our city 
from the hostile fleet. On the 13th of September, 
1814, the most eventful day — the day of impend- 
ing fate to our city, the enemy's ships formed in the 
shape of a crescent round the fort, and commenced 
a bombardment, which they continued, with little 
interruption, during twenty-four hours; throwing 
upwards of fifteen hundred large shells, weighing 
each two hundred pounds, besides a vast number of 
round shot and rockets. The fort was defended by 
a gallant oiiicer, and manned by citizen-soldiers of 
Baltimore, in conjunction with a body of sea-fenci- 
bles and regulars. Who can forget the throb, which, 
during that awful night, beat in every anxious bo- 
som? Who can forget the delirium of joy, with 
which we hailed, on the return of day, the glorious, 
the beloved flag of our country, still waving, in 
proud defiance of our assailants? Here too we had 
conquered — and here too we had to lament the loss 
of some of our most respectable townsmen, who 
bravely fell at their posts. The invader, thus baf- 
fled in all his attempts, was compelled to retire, and 
Baltimore once more lifted up her head in gladness- -- 
yet in gladness mingled with sorrow. 

By this signal and almost unhoped for success, 
for which let us be thankful to the great source of 
every good, this city was elevated in the esteem and 
aifection of our common country. The conduct of 
our city was cited as worthy of imitation, and the 
30 



234 REPORT. 



Stain upon our arms at Washington was considered 
wiped away. The event was consoling to our na- 
tional feelings, and encouraging to our government, 
at that time seriously embarrassed. It is no more 
than just to say, that the defence of Baltimore, and 
the victory of Champlain, were productive of im- 
portant effects in the result of the war. But why 
are these facts, still recent in our recollections, thus 
minutely enumerated? Because the unadorned 
recital of the story of our preservation — nay, of our 
second birth, is best calculated to impress on our 
minds the importance of the event we recommend 
for perpetual commemoration. When a people 
become so lost to generous feeling, as to be insen- 
sible on such occasions, it is evident they are in a 
fair way of losing the spirit which produced actions 
so deserving of praise. In our various pursuits, we 
are neither wanting in public spirit nor individual 
enterprise ; but is there not something due to those 
noble feelings of humanity, to those exalted senti- 
ments, which prompt to the achievement of heroic 
actions? Events of much less moment have given 
rise to annual festivals and celebrations. It is pro- 
posed on this occasion, to illustrate the events of those 
important days, during which the fate of this city 
was so critically suspended, by some suitable me- 
morial. For this purpose two paintings are recom- 
mended, the one to represent the battle of North 
Point, where our fellow-citizens first met the ene- 
my, and the other of the defence of fort M^Henry, 



IIEI'ORT. 235 



where an awful bombardment was resisted with suc- 
cess. Your committee is of opinion that subjects 
of greater sublimity could not offer themselves to 
the genius of the painter. Where, let us ask, coa'.d 
we find a more touching spectacle than that of a 
peaceful city, threatened with destruction, by an 
enemy deemed invincible, and yet in a momeh of 
alarm, little short of panic, and without experience 
in war, resolving on a desperate defence? We be- 
hold a city filled with women, and children, and old 
men — we behold its defenders, the stay and sup- 
port in peace of those objects of their afFections, as 
well as their hope in the hour of battle — we behold 
those objects of affection even less alarmed for their 
safety, than for that which impends over the heads 
of their beloved soldiers. Can there be a more sub- 
lime spectacle than the appearance of those citizen- 
soldiers, marching forth from the bosom of their 
families, to devote themselves in a cause sanctioned 
by every earthly endearment! The appearance of a 
regiment moving under the influence of such incen- 
tives, must produce a very different effect, from 
that of the mercenary, who fights because he is 
paid, or with the ferocity of the tiger for his 
prey. Surely here is a noble subject for every 
muse and every art! It is the great example---the 
lesson of history, addressed to future times, which 
deserves to be remembered. What is it that consti- 
tutes the great and noble in the history of nations 
and individuals, but these elevated acts of public 



236 REPORT. 



'% 



and private virtue? Tlie nation has no liistory--- 
the individual is confounded with the crowd, where 
there are no actions worthy to be remembered. 
The brave defence of Baltimore, will, doubtless, be 
recorded in history with all the honour it so richly 
deserves ; but, as a community, it is our duty to 
mark the event in a more distinct and peculiar man- 
ner. What Baltimorean---what American will not 
feel a generous glow of exultation, when he beholds 
these monumental testimonials of the valour and pa- 
triotism of his countrymen ! Nothing contributed 
so much in the bright days of Greece and Rome, to 
keep alive patriotic feeling and public spirit, as 
the national monuments erected in honour of great 
actions and meritorious individuals. Our republic 
is but just beginning to acquire a character and a 
name ; but this can only be rendered deserving of 
esteem and admiration by a series of noble actions 
on the part of her sons ; these should, therefore, be 
carefully monumented. The day will come, when 
full employment will be afforded to our artists, our 
orators, and our writers, in illustrating and embel- 
lishing our national achievements both in war and 
peace. It is due then to our country, to this city, 
to the brave men who fought, to the living and the 
dead, and to our children, who may be called upon 
at some future day to emulate the example, that 
some suitable measure be adopted to commemorate 
and mark these events, so highly interesting to the 
city of Baltimore and the American people. 



'4^'?. 



^S 



